888

PHYSICS

Figure 1: neutron decays into proton, electron and neutrino

Triple 8 is a most interesting number for a variety of reasons. However, today I stumbled upon the number is an unexpected context. In an article in UNIVERSE TODAY dated 11th November 2021, it's stated that:

Together with protons, neutrons make up the nuclei of the atoms we see around us. Within an atomic nucleus, neutrons can be extremely stable. But when a neutron is on its own, it typically decays in a matter of minutes. 

There are a couple of ways we can measure neutron half-life, such as measuring a beam of neutrons or cooling them down and trapping them in a magnetic bottle, but these different methods give different results for the half-life. The methods should give the same result, but they don’t. The beam method gives a lifetime of 888 seconds, while the bottle method gives 879 seconds.

Perhaps there is some systematic error in the methods, but this discrepancy is a problem for fundamental physics. But a new study has measured neutron decay in a third way, by using a spacecraft orbiting the Moon.

The airless surface of the moon is constantly bombarded by cosmic rays. Sometimes a cosmic ray will kick a neutron off the lunar surface. As the neutron speeds away from the Moon, it has a chance of decaying. So the team used NASA’s Lunar Prospector satellite to count the number of neutrons at various orbital heights. From this, they calculated the neutron lifetime to be 887 seconds.

So the decay time may not be exactly 888 seconds but the beam method returns this result. 

LUCK

What are some other contexts in which these triple digits occur? The Wikipedia article on the topic says that:

In Chinese numerology, 888 usually means triple fortune, as a form a strengthening of the digit 8. On its own, the number 8 is often associated with great fortune, wealth and spiritual enlightenment. Hence, 888 is considered triple. For this reason, addresses and phone numbers containing the digit sequence 888 are considered particularly lucky, and may command a premium because of it.

Several online gambling sites incorporate the number:

• 888casino: formerly Casino-on-Net, is an online casino founded in 1997 and based in Gibraltar. It is one of the Internet's oldest casinos, and in 2013 it became the first exclusively online casino to be licensed in the United States.
  
  
• 888 Holdings PLC, (LSE: 888) known commonly as 888.com, is a public company which owns several popular gambling brands and websites. 888 is based in Gibraltar. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. The business was founded in May 1997 by Israeli entrepreneurs Avi and Aaron Shaked and Shay and Ron Ben-Yitzhak, two sets of brothers, as Virtual Holdings Limited. 
  
  
• 888poker, formerly Pacific Poker, is an international online poker card room and network owned by 888 Holdings. 888poker was established in 2002, and is based in Gibraltar.
  
  
• 888sport (pronounced as "Triple Eight Sport") is a multinational online sports gambling company headquartered in Gibraltar. It was founded in 2008 and is a subsidiary of 888 Holdings plc. The company provides online sports betting, predominantly in European markets.

MATHEMATICS

• There is an 888math.com website that offers tutoring at $8.88 per hour.
  
  
  
  
  
• Mathematically, \(888^3 = 700227072\) is the smallest cube in which each digit occurs exactly three times. The list up to one million of such numbers is (permalink):

888, 56592, 58524, 65577, 70869, 78183, 496941, 512427, 516267, 517461, 557949, 565920, 581421, 585558, 661959, 711828, 713772, 723627, 724983, 733053, 739563, 764472, 781830, 877242, 988458

• It is the only cube in which three digits occur three times. For example, the next number in the previous sequence (56592) has a cube of 181244621426688 but there are four digits that occur three times.
  
  
• 888 the smallest multiple of 24 whose digit sum is 24 and, as well as being divisible by its digit sum, it is divisible by all of its digits.
  
  
• 888 and 24 show up again in the former's membership of OEIS 236661 where 888 counts the number of partitions of 24 that have a standard deviation greater than 2. Permalink.
  
  
• 888 can be written using four 4's:    \(4!+\dfrac{4! \times 4!}{\sqrt{.4}}\)
  
• Other properties of the number include its being a happy, Harshad, Moran, nude, strobogrammatic, modest, congruent, amenable, practical, abundant, pseudoperfect and Zumkeller number (see Numbers Aplenty).
  
  
• The 8's are involved in 888 again thanks to its membership of OEIS A127335.
  
  

A127335

Numbers that are the sum of 8 successive primes.

 The sequence runs:

77, 98, 124, 150, 180, 210, 240, 270, 304, 340, 372, 408, 442, 474, 510, 546, 582, 620, 660, 696, 732, 768, 802, 846, 888

The eight successive primes in the case of 888 are 97, 101, 103, 107, 109, 113, 127 and 131 with an average of 111. Both 111 and 888 are of course repdigits along with the infamous 666 or number of the beast.

• 888 arises in the context of aliquot sequences via OEIS A014360:
  
  

A014360

Aliquot sequence starting at 552.

The sequence begins:

552, 888, 1392, 2328, 3552, 6024, 9096, 13704, 20616, 30984, ...

To quote from Wolfram Alpha:

It has not been proven that all aliquot sequences eventually terminate and become periodic. The smallest number whose fate is not known is 276. There are five such sequences less than 1000, namely 276, 552, 564, 660, and 966, sometimes called the "Lehmer five". 

LABOUR

The three 8's are associated with the labour movement as shown in Figure 2:

Figure 2

CHRISTIANITY

The number is strongly associated with Jesus as well via Greek language Gematria:

Figure 3

The close connection between 666 and 888 can be seen in Figure 4 that features the solar magic square. I've written about the magic squares of the Sun, Moon and planets in a previous blog most titled Magic Squares.

Figure 4: source

Figure 5 shows how the two numbers, 666 and 888, are closely linked. In the diagram, the circled numbers on the magic square form the Greek letter “X” which is the “sign” of Christ. The sum of all the numbers in the field of the magic square of the sun (666) added to the sum of the numbers in the twelve Christ circles (222) is equal to the number of Jesus (888).

Figure 5: source

Figure 6 explores the 888 connection with Jesus even further. It should be remembered that the New Testament was written originally in Greek. To quote:

The 24 letters of the Greek alphabet have an 8-8-8 structure. The first row of eight letters represent units, the second row of eight letters represent tens, the third row of eight letters represent hundreds. If you look inside any Greek dictionary you will see this 8-8-8 letter-number table. Every literate Greek person alive during the time of Christ knew it.

The Greek alphabet was invented almost one thousand years before the birth of Jesus. At the time it was invented, every one of the 24 letters in the Greek alphabet represented a number as well as a sound. Since every name and word in the Greek language had a corresponding numerical value, words could be expressed as numbers and numbers could be expressed as words.  This made the Greek alphabet a public cipher and immediately encouraged two numerical practices called Isopsephia and gematria. 

Isopsephia is the practice of converting words and names into numbers. Gematria is the practice of converting numbers into geometry. The number value of "Jesus" is "888." The above circle has a circumference of 888 units, the same value as the 8-8-8 table structure inscribed inside it. Can anyone honestly believe the authors of the gospels did not use this alphabetic cipher tool when they sat down to write? Source.

Figure 6: source

SYNCHRONICITY

Synchronicity struck this morning on my morning walk when I came across the car number plate B 888 AVJ. This is the morning immediately following my post of the previous day. I'd never seen this number plate before, as far as I remember, and I often note car number plates during my walks.