History of Infinity Day: Why is it on August 8?
Infinity symbol. Image: Wikipedia
HISTORY OF INFINITY DAY: AUGUST 8
Infinity Day, also known as Universal & International Infinity Day, is a commemoration held on the 8th day of the 8th month of each year to celebrate and promote Philosophy and Philosophizing for the ordinary person.
Why 8 is significant
- 8 is the atomic number of Oxygen.
- 8 is the maximum number of electrons that can occupy a valence shell in atomic physics.
- 8 people were saved in the Flood at the time of Noah.
- 8th day: Jesus was circumcised, as the brit mila is held for Jewish boys.
- 8 is the number of legs a spider or octopus has.
- 8 is the number of planets in the Solar System. (Pluto got demoted to a dwarf planet)
- 8 is 2 cubed.
- 8 follows 7 but stops before 9, making it the only non-zero perfect power that is one less than another perfect power.
- 8 is the basis of the octal system, each digit representing 3 bits. A byte is 8 bits.
- 8 eights: (88 + 88888) / 8 = 2108263, is a prime number
- 8 displayed horizontally is the symbol of infinity; its symbol is also called a “lemniscate”: ∞
Where Did We Get The Infinity Symbol?
John Wallis, an English mathematician, is credited with introducing the infinity symbol and its mathematical meaning as we now know it in 1655 in his De sections conicis, or “On Conic Sections.” However, he did not explain his choice of this symbol.
Conic sections. Image: Wikipedia
But Isaac Newton read his book and wrote in his Two Treatises of the Quadrature of Curves, p. 355:
‘About the beginning of my mathematical studies, as soon as the works of our celebrated countryman, Dr Wallis, fell into my hands, by considering the Series, by the Intercalation of which, he exhibits the Area of the Circle and the Hyperbola…’
John Wallis. Image: Edward Worth Library
8 light minutes is Farther than you Think
1 Astronomical Unit, by nagualdesign. Image: Wikimedia
The distance from the Sun to the Earth is 8 light minutes. In other words, it takes 8 minutes for the Sun’s light to reach the Earth, about 93,000,000 miles, or 1 AU (Astronomical Unit). By car, it would take 237 years to drive from Earth to the Sun.
Safety first: to avoid getting burned by the Sun, drive at night.
Origin of Infinity Day
The Free Advice Man. Image: The Free Advice Man
Infinity Day was first conceived and created by Jean-Pierre Ady Fenyo, a philosopher, poet, journalist, and science-fiction author. As a sidewalk philosopher, he gained recognition in 1987 as “The Original New York City Free Advice Man” (see The New Yorker magazine’s August 17, 1987, issue). He has since become known as a celebrity there.
Infinity Day began in 1987 and has been celebrated worldwide through peaceful, nonviolent, and lawful demonstrations, promoting philosophical inquiry, freedom of expression, freedom of speech, and ethical values in society. Thereafter, the founder took it to various cities in the US and Europe. He now lives in London.
What significant 8s do you know?
Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
billpetro.com
With this and yellow pig day (17 July ) I am all set.
10:04PM was the time on the Back to the Future clock tower when it was struck by lighting. Those two zeros can be viewed as an infinity….which is appropriate for time traveling. That leaves the 1 and 4 to make a 14. We find 14s all over the place in physical sciences. There are 1440 minutes in a day, the first two numbers in Pi after the decimal are 14, the generations of the ancestry of Jesus Christ from Abraham to David to the 2nd Temple to his birth are measured in 3 sets of 14 (see Gospel of Matthew), the moon has a 14 month orbit and a 14 degree variance, Carbon-14 Dating measures Nitrogen 14 and Carbon 14. The list goes on and on.
Bill, your list of interesting 8’s made me think of – Why was 6 afraid of 7? Because 789.
And my favorite date with respect to numbers is Pi Day – especially two years ago and even better in morning. 9:26:53 to be exact.
Chuck
789: I think there should be a history behind that.
-Bill
Everything ends with Infinity
My Infiniti is 16 years old and will not die. Aptly named, I guess.
John,
That is brilliant. I wondered why they named the car that way.
What do you think would happen if they came out with a car named “Eterniti”?
-Bill
That’s clever. Actually I think I have an Eterniti. Best car I ever had.
Bonjour Bill, Nissan Executives at a conference in NYC in 1987…the year I became relatively famous…spotted me in front of the Niagara Laundromat in Greenwich Village and asked me what I thought would be a good name for a car. I replied: “I’d call it an Infinity car and use the Infinity symbol for it. It would be very fuel-efficient and safe as a Volvo.” Hence…eventually (1989): “Infiniti”. They never gave me credit nor acknowledged this fact! I am Sirius with an “e”. Best, JPAF