137 (number)

In mathematics

• the 33rd prime number; the next is 139, with which it comprises a twin prime, and thus 137 is a Chen prime.
• an Eisenstein prime with no imaginary part and a real part of the form.
• the fourth Stern prime.
• a pythagorean prime: 11² + 4².
• a strong prime in the sense that it is more than the arithmetic mean of its two neighboring primes.
• a strictly non-palindromic number and a primeval number.

In physics

• Since the early 1900s, physicists have postulated that the number could lie at the heart of a grand unified theory, relating theories of electromagnetism, quantum mechanics and, especially, gravity.
• The fine structure constant, a dimensionless physical constant, is approximately 1/137, and the astronomer Arthur Eddington conjectured in 1929 that its reciprocal was in fact precisely the integer 137, which he claimed could be "obtained by pure deduction". This conjecture was not widely adopted, and by the 1940s, the experimental values for the constant were clearly inconsistent with it.
• Physicist Leon M. Lederman numbered his home near Fermilab 137 based on the significance of the number to those in his profession. Lederman expounded on the significance of the number in his book The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question?, noting that not only was it the inverse of the fine-structure constant, but was also related to the probability that an electron will emit or absorb a photon—i.e., Feynman's conjecture. He added that it also "contains the crux of electromagnetism, relativity, and quantum theory. It would be less unsettling if the relationship between all these important concepts turned out to be one or three or maybe a multiple of pi. But 137?" The number 137, according to Lederman, "shows up naked all over the place", meaning that scientists on any planet in the universe using whatever units they have for charge or speed, and whatever their version of Planck's constant may be, will all come up with 137, because it is a pure number. Lederman recalled that Richard Feynman had even suggested that all physicists put a sign in their offices with the number 137 to remind them of just how much they do not know.
• In the Bohr model, the innermost electron of an atom with Z = 137 would be orbiting the speed of light, and the next element would be "impossible". Since the Bohr model does not include either quantum mechanics or special relativity, the fact that it breaks down in this regime is not unexpected. However, such large atoms could be expected to behave rather differently from a naive extrapolation of trends in the periodic table. For a finite nuclear volume, the limit is raised to about Z = 172.
• Wolfgang Pauli, a pioneer of quantum physics, died in a hospital room numbered 137, a coincidence that disturbed him.

  In esoterism

• The fine structure constant of physics continues to convince esotericists that the universe has numerological fine tuning: for example the age of the universe could be considered as roughly 13.7 times 1 billion years, though newer estimates put this value at 13.8.
• The Hebrew word קבלה has a Gematria of 137. In Modern Hebrew, the root of Kabbalah ק-ב-ל can mean either "receiving" or "parallel". Kabbalah is generally taken to mean "the received tradition", which conveys the continuity of a tradition that has been passed down from generation to generation. Nevertheless, the earlier nuance of meaning is seen in the first appearances of its root in the Torah, where it means "parallel" or "corresponding" rather than "receiving". It is used to describe the "corresponding loops", which, when clasped together, enjoined the two sections of the Tabernacle's ceiling. These loops were suspended directly over the veil that divided the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. Symbolically, this is the threshold between the physical dimension and the utterly spiritual dimension. In other words, at the boundary line of the physical world, the number 137 emerges. The wisdom of Kabbalah is to find correspondences between the mundane and spiritual levels of reality.

  In the military

• Boeing C-137 Stratoliner was a VIP transport aircraft from the Boeing 707 jet airliner used by the United States Air Force
• RAF - No. 137 Squadron
• Strike Fighter Squadron 137 is a United States Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet strike fighter squadron stationed at Naval Air Station Lemoore, California
• Mission Buenaventura-class fleet oiler built during World War II
• was a United States Navy minesweeper during World War II
• was a United States Navy commissioned during World War II
• was a United States Navy during World War II
• was the United States Navy during World War II
• was a United States Navy during World War II
• was a United States Navy during World War II
• :fr:137e régiment d'infanterie|137e régiment d'infanterie is a French Infantry Regiment created under 1st Empire
• 137th Infantry Division in Germany was a German major fighting formation between 1940 and 1943 Wehrmacht

  In music

• Cesium_137 is an American synthpop musical group which takes its name from a radioactive isotope
• 137 is a 2001 album by The Pineapple Thief
• Rescate 137 is a 2000 album by experimental electronic musician Christian Vogel
• The Fugue for String Quintet in D major, Op. 137 was composed by Beethoven in 1817
• The Gibson ES-137 is a semi-hollow body guitar by Gibson
• 137 is a 2009 album by RickWhiteAlbum
• Agent 137 is a female electronic dance music DJ in Washington, DC
• 137 is a song by Canadian death metal band Mitochondrion
• 137 is a song by British producer Squarepusher on Music Is Rotted One Note
• 137 is a song by Brand New on the 2017 album Science Fiction
• Room 137 is a song by Dream Theater on their 2019 album Distance over Time

  In religion

• The Bible says that Ishmael, Levi and Amram all lived to be 137 years old. The three appearances make it the most common lifespan of individuals in the Bible.
• According to the verse in Genesis there was a ten-year age gap between Abraham and Sarah. Sarah died at the age of 127, thus Abraham was 137 years old at her death. According to Rashi's commentary on Genesis 23:2, Sarah died when she heard that Isaac had almost been sacrificed, thus Abraham was 137 years old at the Binding of Isaac.

  In transportation

• London Buses route 137 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London
• Boeing 707-347C CC-137 transport aircraft served the Canadian Forces from 1970 to 1997
• Philippine Airlines Flight 137 from Manila overshot the runway while landing at Bacolod City Domestic Airport on March 22, 1998
• 137 Avenue is a primary road in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
• 137th Street–City College is a station on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line of the New York City Subway in New York City

  In other fields

• by Arthur I. Miller,, describes the friendship of Carl Jung and Wolfgang Pauli and their search for the meaning of 137 in science, medieval alchemy, dream interpretation, and the I Ching.
• The year AD 137 or 137 BC
• 137 AH is a year in the Islamic calendar that corresponds to 754 - 755 CE
• 137 Meliboea is a large and dark main belt asteroid discovered in 1874
• The atomic number of an element not yet observed called Untriseptium
• California Penal Code for "Offer bribe to influence testimony"
• The Samson 137 Indian reserve in Alberta, Canada
• Sonnet 137 by William Shakespeare
• Psalm 137
• The atomic number of the highest allowed element on the periodic table allowed for a point nucleus by the Bohr Model and the Dirac equation.
• Caesium-137 is a radioactive isotope of Caesium formed by nuclear fission
• The number of atoms in a chlorophyll molecule, for which the chemical formula is C₅₅H₇₂MgN₄O₅.
• Rick Sanchez, a fictional character from the Adult Swim animated television series Rick and Morty, is from a version of the universe numbered C-137, and is sometimes referred to as "C-137" in contexts where "Rick" would be ambiguous.