A video posted on YouTube yesterday, February 9, by user Vihart (a self-described professional mathemusician at the Khan Academy) introduces a very weird fractal number to the world. It is designated by the word Wau, after an ancient Greek letter, and the letter F is used to indicate it.
As Vihart explains, there is no easy way to explain what Wau is or how it works. What is very interesting about it is that it can easily be related to itself, or to other interesting and unusual numbers, such as pi, e, i and others.
Also very interesting, one cannot put it in a logarithm, since that would “be like trying to divide by zero.” Vihart also puts the number in relation to quantum physics, in a section of the video where the effects of the Golden ratio are compared to those of Wau, when applied to a spiral.
Please see the video above, and leave a comment if you can think of a better use or explanation for this awesome number.
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