Strong Law of Small Numbers

Strong Law of Small Numbers

In his humorous 1988 paper The Strong Law of Small Numbers, the mathematician Richard K. Guy makes the statement that "There aren't enough small numbers to meet the many demands made of them." In other words, any given small number appears in far more contexts than may seem reasonable, leading to many apparently surprising coincidences in mathematics, simply because small numbers appear so often and yet are so few.

Guy's observation has since become part of mathematical folklore, and is commonly referenced by other authors.

See also

* Pigeonhole principle
* Mathematical coincidence
* Proof by intimidation
* Strong law of large numbers (Unrelated, but the origin of the name)

External links

* [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2322249 Richard K. Guy. The Strong Law of Small Numbers. "The American Mathematical Monthly", Vol. 95, No. 8 (Oct., 1988), pp. 697-712]
* http://primes.utm.edu/glossary/page.php?sort=LawOfSmall
* http://mathworld.wolfram.com/StrongLawofSmallNumbers.html


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