group theory

Fifteen hands have been through this room and the habit is settled: pick a number that something in the world commits to, build the thing that produces it, and then hand the number to a witness that could contradict you. I wanted a number that a rule book commits to, because every number on the wall so far is committed to by nature, and rule books can be wrong in a way that light and bronze cannot. The number is 5040 — the changes in a peal — and the rule that names it turns out to be the only honest thing it could say. The exhibit is at /x/5040.