cp's OEIS Frontend

A124250 Finite set of numbers found inscribed on faces of a 17th or 18th century Mughal gold box in the shape of an icosahedron, from the treasury of Tipu Sultan.

%I A124250 #27 Jul 06 2025 14:47:22
%S A124250 11,20,21,31,41,51,61,71,81,91,101,201,202,301,401,501,601,701,801,901
%N A124250 Finite set of numbers found inscribed on faces of a 17th or 18th century Mughal gold box in the shape of an icosahedron, from the treasury of Tipu Sultan.
%C A124250 The significance of these numbers is not known. One possible explanation has been proposed by Paul Bien, see below. The box is of interest because of its rarity and great value.
%D A124250 Paul Bien, paper presented at the 10th Conference on Fibonacci Numbers and their Applications (2002) but which did not appear in the Proceedings. It appeared in an earlier format in The Eighth Midwest History of Mathematics Comference, October 2000.
%D A124250 Harry Waldman, MAA is offered opportunity to buy a unique gold logo, FOCUS (Math. Assoc. Amer.), Vol. 26 (No. 9, 2006), p. 13. [The icosahedron is the logo of the Math. Assoc. America.]
%H A124250 Rohit Gupta, <a href="http://compasswallah.tumblr.com/post/96251522913/the-icosahedron-of-tipoo-sultan">The icosahedron of Tipoo Sultan</a> (2014)
%H A124250 Brian Hayes, <a href="http://bit-player.org/2006/math-baubles">Math baubles</a>
%H A124250 National Galleries of Scotland, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20021112061327/http://www.nationalgalleries.org/tipu/thistle211.htm">Icosahedron</a>
%H A124250 Saratoga Fine Art, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220504035430/http://www.saratogafineart.com/5223a.jpg">Picture</a>
%e A124250 The numbered faces are as follows:
%e A124250 ......./ \../ \
%e A124250 ....../202\/601\
%e A124250 ......-----------
%e A124250 ......\901/\701/
%e A124250 .......\ /801\/
%e A124250 ------------------------
%e A124250 \ 11/\91/\ 71/\ 51/\ 31/\
%e A124250 .\ /20\/ 81\/61\/ 41\ /21\
%e A124250 ..-------------------------
%e A124250 ..\101/\201/\301/\401/\501/
%e A124250 ...\/...\/...\/...\/...\/
%e A124250 The hinge is on the edge common to the faces 71 and 801 with the top section as shown here being on the lid. Paul Bien relates the sums of numbers in the top, round the middle bottom and the total to give approximations (to 3 decimal places) to Pi, Pi squared, Pi cubed, Phi (golden mean), Phi squared, Phi cubed, root 2, root 3 and root 6 [Comments from Ron Knott, Dec 16 2006]
%K A124250 nonn,fini,full,unkn
%O A124250 1,1
%A A124250 _N. J. A. Sloane_, based on email from _T. D. Noe_, Dec 15 2006