King Wen Sequence - Explanation

Explanation

Over the centuries there were many attempts to explain this sequence. Some basic elements are obvious: each symbol is paired with an "upside-down" neighbor, except for 1, 27, 29, and 61 which are "vertically" symmetrical and paired with "inversed" neighbors.

Its combinatorial mathematical basis was reportedly explained for the first time in 2006.

Read more about this topic:  King Wen Sequence

Famous quotes containing the word explanation:

    Natural selection, the blind, unconscious, automatic process which Darwin discovered, and which we now know is the explanation for the existence and apparently purposeful form of all life, has no purpose in mind. It has no mind and no mind’s eye. It does not plan for the future. It has no vision, no foresight, no sight at all. If it can be said to play the role of the watchmaker in nature, it is the blind watchmaker.
    Richard Dawkins (b. 1941)

    Are cans constitutionally iffy? Whenever, that is, we say that we can do something, or could do something, or could have done something, is there an if in the offing—suppressed, it may be, but due nevertheless to appear when we set out our sentence in full or when we give an explanation of its meaning?
    —J.L. (John Langshaw)

    Young children constantly invent new explanations to account for complex processes. And since their inventions change from week to week, furnishing the “correct” explanation is not quite so important as conveying a willingness to discuss the subject. Become an “askable parent.”
    Ruth Formanek (20th century)