Expressing a Name as a Mathematical Equation

[kjv1611]

I have heard of a person whom I know being able to somehow convert a person's name into a mathematical equation. Now if I can't get an answer here, I intend on asking him personally to see what he says. I might ask him anyway, but I thought it would make for a good discussion here.

Does anyone have a suggestion as to how to do this, or either a good link referencing the art/science?

Is there a particular name for the process?

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[2ffat]

What is the benefit of doing this?

Therein lies the "fun" of cryptography. ;-)


James P. Cottingham
-----------------------------------------
[sup]I'm number 1,229!
I'm number 1,229![/sup]

 

[ESquared]

Numerology, in my book, is party-trick level math.

 

[Olaf Doschke]

convert a person's name into a mathematical equation

That's surely only about 10% of the whole story. And it's even wrong if you don't add some extra info. A name is a name, converted to an equation it's not the name anymore.

If you convert a text string to an equation that don't resolves back to the text string, it doesn't make sense at all. I can also convert buildings to an equation, if I just define a conversion function for it, like f(building)=1, but it wouldn't make any sense.

An equation is something, which can be resolved or not, like x*2=4 can be solved with x=2. So he may mean he can create an equation that solves to x="Name", but therefore you would have to turn that name to a numeric expression, like eg it's ASCII code representation. It's not very hard to do something like that, I'm not impressed if that is what's behind it all. Even if it's an equation for irrational numbers or something more complex like a mathematical representation of egytian hieroglyphs, it all comes down to numbers in math.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[kjv1611]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagoras

We do know that Pythagoras and his students believed that everything was related to mathematics and that numbers were the ultimate reality and, through mathematics, everything could be predicted and measured in rhythmic patterns or cycles.

To say that a name is written out as an equation doesn't mean that "converted to an equation it's not the name anymore." That is like saying a triangle is no longer a triangle if you can convert it to a number via an equation.

I can accept the argument in a way that it would seem more or less a "party trick" in that I doubt there is much real usefulness. The whole story goes that the man I mentioned was being mocked because of his accent, so he simply carried out the mathematical equation (some conversion process obviously had to be used), explained exactly how he did it, and those who had previously mocked could not understand the method. So, yeah, the part that he converted the name was maybe 10% of the story.

I personally can't see any real reason to do such, other than practicing mental knowledge and abilities. I would imagine that Mr. Pythagoras found a method to convert a string of text into a mathematical equation. Mr. A[sup]2[/sup] + B[sup]2[/sup] = C[sup]2[/sup], that is.

Regardless, it is an interesting thought IMHO. No, I doubt it will cure cancer or aids or some other widespread disease. I doubt it will provide the cure for the common cold. I doubt it would even help my power bill. But it is an interesting thought.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[ESquared]

I'd like to see it. Until we have this method plain for all to analyze, anything we say about it is pure speculation. It might be interesting. It might not.

Discussion about it when we don't even know what it is, well, it was diverting for a little while!