The Most Useful Numbers You've Never Heard Of

There's a strange number system, featured in the work of a dozen Fields Medalists, that helps solve problems that are intractable with real numbers. Head to https://brilliant.org/veritasium to start your free 30-day trial, and the first 200 people get 20% off an annual premium subscription.

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References:

Koblitz, N. (2012). p-adic Numbers, p-adic Analysis, and Zeta-Functions (Vol. 58). Springer Science & Business Media.

Amazing intro to p-adic numbers here:

• 1 Billion is Tiny...

Excellent series on p-adic numbers:

• p adic numbers. P...

Great videos by James Tanton: @JamesTantonMath

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Written by Derek Muller and Alex Kontorovich

Edited by Trenton Oliver

Animated by Mike Radjabov, Ivy Tello, Fabio Albertelli and Jakub Misiek

Filmed by Derek Muller

Additional video/photos supplied by Getty Images & Pond5

Music from Epidemic Sound & Jonny Hyman

Produced by Derek Muller, Petr Lebedev, & Emily Zhang