What Cheered You Up? - Deck the Halls...

[Sandra]

I know that's where the motto came from, just thinking about the ancient golem

[Grace Speaker]

You know you're an irredeemable nerdy geek, or possibly a geeky nerd, when you're watching The Big Bang Theory and you suddenly spot that the house number on Will Wheaton's house is 1701 and it makes you grin like a loony at this lovingly geeky in-joke.

If you can spot why, you're as bad as me!

[phalarope]

You know you're an irredeemable nerdy geek, or possibly a geeky nerd, when you're watching The Big Bang Theory and you suddenly spot that the house number on Will Wheaton's house is 1701 and it makes you grin like a loony at this lovingly geeky in-joke.

If you can spot why, you're as bad as me!

Really? I'll have to pay more attention.

[Grace Speaker]

Michael Palin has been made a knight in the New Year's honours list, the first member of Monty Python to become a 'Sir'. In celebration, John Cleese Tweeted the following observation:

John Cleese@JohnCleese

Congratulation to dear Michael Pallin on his Knighthood !!! Sir Mickey !

He'll have to go 'Ni' for the rest of his life now

[phalarope]

After the Queen does the tap is there an opportunity for the newly knighted to respond? If so, do you think Michael will have the cheek to say "Ni"?

[Grace Speaker]

After the Queen does the tap is there an opportunity for the newly knighted to respond? If so, do you think Michael will have the cheek to say "Ni"?

I like to imagine the investiture would go something like this:

Her Majesty the Queen: "Arise Sir Michael. Now that We have fully invested you into The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, We demand a sacrifice."

Sir Michael: "Er . . .um . . . a sacrifice, Your Majesty?"

HMQ: "We want . . . a shrubbery!"

Sir Michael (grinning despite himself): "A shrubbery, Your Majesty?"

HMQ (poker faced): "Yes, a shrubbery! . . . One that looks nice and not too expensive."

Sir Michael (supressing a giggle): "Of course Your Majesty. It would be my honour, Your Majesty!"

HMQ (lowering her voice so only Sir Michael can hear): One should think so too. Now bugger off there's a good fellow, I've got dozens more of these bloody things to get through and my feet are giving me gyp."

Sir Michael: "At once, Your Majesty."
He turns to leave.

HMQ: "Oh Sir Michael . . . aren't you forgetting something?"

Sir Michael: "Ni! Your Majesty."

HMQ (grinning): "Good. Now go and say that to Prince Phillip, it'll make the old sod's day. You might need to shout a bit, he's a but mutton these days you know."

[chrisboote]

You know you're an irredeemable nerdy geek, or possibly a geeky nerd, when you're watching The Big Bang Theory and you suddenly spot that the house number on Will Wheaton's house is 1701 and it makes you grin like a loony at this lovingly geeky in-joke.

If you can spot why, you're as bad as me!

Amy's apartment used to be 314

[Grace Speaker]

You know you're an irredeemable nerdy geek, or possibly a geeky nerd, when you're watching The Big Bang Theory and you suddenly spot that the house number on Will Wheaton's house is 1701 and it makes you grin like a loony at this lovingly geeky in-joke.

If you can spot why, you're as bad as me!

Amy's apartment used to be 314

yes, I spotted that one too, but always felt that it should have been Sheldon's apartment number - he is after all 'Moonpie' . . .

[chrisboote]

You know you're an irredeemable nerdy geek, or possibly a geeky nerd, when you're watching The Big Bang Theory and you suddenly spot that the house number on Will Wheaton's house is 1701 and it makes you grin like a loony at this lovingly geeky in-joke.

If you can spot why, you're as bad as me!

Amy's apartment used to be 314

yes, I spotted that one too, but always felt that it should have been Sheldon's apartment number - he is after all 'Moonpie' . . .

Well, they live in apartment 4A, 2311 Los Robles

2311 is the fifth (4Ath?) Euclid number - they have to travel on Euclid avenue to get to work

It's also a Primoral prime (2 x 3 x 5 x 7 x 11 + 1)

It's the 344th prime number

344 is an Octahedral number, which means that 344 spheres can make the planar solid that in Dungeons and Dragons is called a D8 (an 8 sided dice) - which is Sheldon's favourite dice

OK, apartment 4A...

42311 is a product of itself, 1 and two other primes, 29 and 1459, and was the first number used to demonstrate the theory of private/public key encryption using products of primes

29 is another Primoral prime as well (2 x 3 x 5 - 1) - the 4th one in fact

1459 is a sexy prime, a pierpoint prime and the sum of nine consecutive primes (139 + 149 + 151 + 157 + 163 + 167 + 173 + 179 + 181)

That's a lot of primes for a Prime Time TV series...

[chrisboote]

2311 is the fifth (4Ath?) Euclid number

Ah, just looked some stuff up

Many mathematicians don't count 3 as the 1st Euclid number, rather the 0th - the sequence starting this way is referred to as Euclid A

So 2311 really is the 4Ath Euclid number

[Grace Speaker]

Oh I do like the way your mind works, Mr Boote

However, although they do have real physicists as consultants, you might be giving the makers of TBBT too much credit in this case. That said, you've now got my mind whirring: so "4A, 2311 Los Robles"

'Los Robles' just means the oaks in Spanish and is also a real address that they've pinched for the show, so I think we can discount any significance to that part of the address. Euclid Avenue is also a real street (Route 83 according to Wiki).

2311 is a prime number and we do know how Sheldon likes to be prime at everything. As for 4A: there are 4 main characters of whom, Sheldon considers himself the (A) alpha. In physics, an alpha particle is a positively charged particle that consists of 2 protons and 2 neutrons bound together, which it could be argued represent the 4 boys.

To come at this at a different tangent altogether, we also know that the boys love their SciFi. The 4th dimension is commonly accepted as Time and the 23rd of November (23/11) was the date that Doctor Who was first broadcast on BBC1 in 1963.

It occurs to me that I also might be reading too much into a simple address . . .

[chrisboote]

So ... 4(A)2311 with all its attendant mathematical associations is giving too much credit, but 314 is OK? 1701 is OK?

Read Simon Singh's book about "The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets" to see what happens when maths geeks write scripts for a comedy

Now compare the list of Simpsons writers and consultants, and TBBT writers and consultants ...

[chrisboote]

is also a real address that they've pinched for the show

Look again how far out of the centre of Pasadena 2311 would be

That apartment would be around 13-17 Los Robles

They chose that larger number for a reason

[chrisboote]

You want more proof of the writers' obsession with number theory?

Just watching an episode an Zach's apartment number is 320

320 is a Leyland number, where 320 = x^y + y^x (2^8 + 8^2 or 256 + 64)

[Grace Speaker]

So ... 4(A)2311 with all its attendant mathematical associations is giving too much credit, but 314 is OK? 1701 is OK?

Read Simon Singh's book about "The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets" to see what happens when maths geeks write scripts for a comedy

Now compare the list of Simpsons writers and consultants, and TBBT writers and consultants ...

314 is so obvious that no they don't get credit from me for using that one. Although on Fraser I did give credit to Bulldog's apartment being 333 - half the Number of the Beast because he's such a shortarse!

1701 in TBBT is a geeky reference and has nothing to do with maths, as Will Wheaton was Ensign Crusher on Star Trek: Next Generation and it's the reg # of the Starship Enterprise: NCC-1701.

According to one of the writers/producers in one if the special features bits on TBBT DVDs (i can't remember which one), the number of 2311 on Los Robles was deliberately chosen so that it sounded real but wasn't an actual apartment block near the on screen locale, so that fans didn't start stalking the poor residents. They didn't mention any relevance to the number itself, but I'm with you on this and like to think that there is - as an unashamed geek, i particularly like the possibility of a nod to Doctor Who

I'm afraid that I've never really been much of a fan of The Simpsons, much to the disgust of many of my friends over the years, so I don't have the background show knowledge to appreciate the book on it's secret maths. Did anyone do anyone analyse South Park?