Talk:137 (number)

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It was at one time thought to be exactly 1/137

New to me. Who did in fact think this? Do you have any reference? AFAIK α has always been e^2/hbar.c, so why would anyone expect this to be the reciprocal of an integer?

The physicist Arthur Eddington. See http://www.maa.org/mathland/mathtrek_5_21_01.html

No, Eddington's magic number was 136.
See http://mathworld.wolfram.com/EddingtonNumber.html
See http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Quotations/Eddington.html
So it would seem that MathTrek is misinformed.

Herbee 2004-02-07

[edit] Why is this tibit of information important?

"Interestingly, the number 137, when viewed upside down, resembles the word LEI."

What is LEI? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Atlacatl (talk • contribs) 23:31, 7 April 2008 (UTC) Lei is the flower necklace given to visitors to Hawaii.

Can anyone supply a citation for 137 as the number of Cabala? I've seen conflicting references to this fact elsewhere on the internet and the Cabala article doesn't clarify. This seems like an important coincidence of mysticism and reality... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.69.122.35 (talk) 21:32, 17 April 2008 (UTC)