Talk:Keith number

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article doesn't make sense. How can you split 197 into two digits? — Timwi 02:15, 7 Mar 2004 (UTC)

You split 197 into three digits and make the Fibonacci-like sequence from that, then 197 recurs. I wouldn't say that the "article doesn't make sense." Instead, I would say that User:Ams80 has expressed it more like a professional mathematician would. I don't always understand the way professional mathematicians talk, but that's a criticism of me, and not of them. PrimeFan 20:41, 7 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I understand the article now. The reason why it didn't make sense to me is because a "Fibonacci sequence", to me, has the recurrence formula F_n = F_{n − 2} + F_{n − 1}. This means there are only two degrees of freedom, and so you can only specify two initial values for the sequence. This is why a three-digit number confused me. — Now that I understand what Keith numbers are, it seems kind of weird because the three-digit Keith numbers feel kind of fundamentally different in their nature from the two-digit ones. But anyway. — Timwi 22:03, 7 Mar 2004 (UTC)

How the fibonacci-like sequence is formed for 3- and 4-digit numbers might need to be explianed a little better. Also, I'm all for piling on greek letters, but I liked how the older versions of the article made more sense to common folk. Perhaps the two approaches could be blended? Numerao 19:41, 8 Mar 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Mike Keith

Who is/was Keith?

He's a mathematician who published a paper on these numbers titled "Repfigit Numbers" in a 1987 issue of the Journal of Recreational Math. However, this does not make him more important than NFL announcer Mike Keith in our culture's estimation. PrimeFan 20:14, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

Now linked to Mike Keith_(mathematician), courtesy User:Kompik. Incidentally, Keith is also the brilliant author of Cadaeic_Cadenza, which is definitely worth a look. Rpresser 16:09, 4 October 2006 (UTC)