Editing 899: Number Line

*'''Negative numbers''' have the same magnitude as positive numbers but can only be used to represent the removal of that same magnitude (hence the term "difference" being used for subtraction).

*'''0.<span style="text-decoration: overline;">99</span>'''.... is {{w|0.999...|equal to 1}} because there is no number between 0.<span style="text-decoration: overline;">99</span>.... and 1. 1 - '''0.0000000372''' is 1 bit less than the {{w|IEEE_floating_point|IEEE 754 32-bit floating-point representation}} of 1.

*The '''{{w|golden ratio}}''' or "phi" is the number (1 + sqrt(5)) / 2, about 1.61803. It has many interesting mathematical properties, mostly relating to geometry, and has occasional appearances in nature, such as spirals formed by the seeds in sunflowers. It is also subject to many less credible claims, such as the belief that phi appears in {{w|Parthenon}} (a well-disputed claim) or that rectangles proportioned after phi are more aesthetically pleasing.

*'''2.9299372''' is a President's Day reference. It is the average of e and pi just as the American Presidents' Day is always observed on the 3rd Monday of February (between {{w|George Washington}} and {{w|Abraham Lincoln}}'s birthdays). Washington and Lincoln were the 1st and 16th Presidents of the USA, respectively. Each has a celebrated place in American history.

*'''{{w|Gird}}''' is a purely fictional number. (The glyph that Randall uses seems to resemble an older shape of the digit 4, such as seen on [http://www.bl.uk/learning/images/mappinghist/large2296.html archaic maps].). Canon and orthodox are references to organised religions. Gird could be a reference to any or all of:

**[http://www.strangehorizons.com/2000/20001120/secret_number.shtml Bleem] - a fictional integer between 3 and 4

**[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-033 SCP-033] - a fictional number that causes freaky things to happen

**Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal's [http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?id=3913 Sorf] - a fictional integer between 2 and 3

*'''Site of the Battle of 4.108''' is another map joke, implying that 4.108 is an actual location, where an eponymous battle was previously fought. It may be a reference (or homage) to the {{w|Battle of Wolf 359}}, a famous military conflict in the fictional universe of Star Trek.

*An '''Unexplored''' region obscures the line approximately ranging all values from from 4.5 to 6.7. In the days when the Earth was still being mapped out, territories that had yet to be properly explored and charted were labelled in a similar manner. The placement of the '''Unexplored''' region on the number line indicates that all numbers in that range, including the integers 5 and 6, are completely unknown. This is, of course, patently ridiculous, and the humor seems to derive solely from how nonsensical and unbelievable it is.

*'''8''' is not the largest even prime, nor is it a prime at all. The largest (and only) even prime is 2. A joke intended for those who clearly know that the claim is false.

*The last entry seems to be a reference to certain fields of {{w|pure mathematics}}, which focuses less on performing calculations with numbers and more on understanding structures that may be described using logic. It finishes off the tone of the comic that seems to be shaping the number line terms of what is commonly useful to certain areas of applied mathematics, rather than a complete, accurate version of the number line.

The title text is a literalism joke, implying that Wikipedia would like its "{{w|List of numbers}}" page to include every number from negative infinity to infinity. It could also be a reference to {{w|Gödel's incompleteness theorems}}, which [[Randall]] has used as comic fodder before in [[468: Fetishes]]. Gödel's theorems roughly assert that a number theory could never be fully complete. The equivalent for a list of numbers is {{w|Cantor's diagonal argument}}, which is a proof that any list of real numbers can never be complete even if the list is infinitely long. Either way, any "true" Wikipedia article named "List of numbers" would perforce forever be incomplete, no matter how much it was expanded. Both Gödel's incompleteness theorems and Cantor's diagonal argument feature prominently in {{w|Gödel, Escher, Bach}} by {{w|Douglas Hofstadter}}, to whom Randall devoted later comic [[917: Hofstadter]]. It may also be referencing his previous statements about Wikipedia being the home of compulsive list-makers, who make the most astonishingly complete lists imaginable.

:[Number line ranging from -1 to 10.]

:[Line at the golden ratio.] Φ - Parthenon; sunflowers; golden ratio; wait, come back, I have facts!

:[Line at 3.5 with a ribbon as the numeral] Gird - accepted as canon by orthodox mathematicians  

:[Line at 8.75.] If you encounter a number higher than this, you"re not doing real math