Look-and-say sequence
E29421
The look-and-say sequence is a famous integer sequence where each term is generated by verbally describing the digits of the previous term, studied for its surprising combinatorial and growth properties.
All labels observed (5)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Conway constant | 2 |
| A005150 | 1 |
| Conway sequence | 1 |
| Look-and-say sequence canonical | 1 |
| look and say sequence | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T231140 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Look-and-say sequence Context triple: [John H. Conway, notableWork, Look-and-say sequence]
-
A.
Pascal's triangle
Pascal's triangle is a triangular array of numbers in which each entry is the sum of the two directly above it, widely used in combinatorics, algebra, and probability.
-
B.
Numbers
Numbers is the fourth book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament, recounting the Israelites’ wilderness wanderings and organizing laws and censuses.
-
C.
Gauss’s constant
Gauss’s constant is a mathematical constant arising in number theory and complex analysis, particularly in connection with the lemniscate and elliptic functions.
-
D.
A Loop
A Loop is a modern streetcar route in Portland, Oregon, that provides circulator service through the central city and adjacent neighborhoods as part of the Portland Streetcar system.
-
E.
Aitken
Aitken is a Scottish-origin surname notably borne by Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook, a prominent Canadian-British newspaper magnate and politician.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Look-and-say sequence Target entity description: The look-and-say sequence is a famous integer sequence where each term is generated by verbally describing the digits of the previous term, studied for its surprising combinatorial and growth properties.
-
A.
Pascal's triangle
Pascal's triangle is a triangular array of numbers in which each entry is the sum of the two directly above it, widely used in combinatorics, algebra, and probability.
-
B.
Numbers
Numbers is the fourth book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament, recounting the Israelites’ wilderness wanderings and organizing laws and censuses.
-
C.
Gauss’s constant
Gauss’s constant is a mathematical constant arising in number theory and complex analysis, particularly in connection with the lemniscate and elliptic functions.
-
D.
A Loop
A Loop is a modern streetcar route in Portland, Oregon, that provides circulator service through the central city and adjacent neighborhoods as part of the Portland Streetcar system.
-
E.
Aitken
Aitken is a Scottish-origin surname notably borne by Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook, a prominent Canadian-British newspaper magnate and politician.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
combinatorial object
ⓘ
integer sequence ⓘ recursively defined sequence ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs |
Conway sequence
ⓘ
linked to:
Look-and-say sequence
look and say sequence ⓘ
linked to:
Look-and-say sequence
|
| definedByRule | each term describes the digits of the previous term in order of appearance ⓘ |
| growthConstantName |
Conway constant
ⓘ
linked to:
Look-and-say sequence
|
| hasApproximateConwayConstant | 1.303577269034 ⓘ |
| hasAsymptoticBehavior | length of nth term grows like lambda^n where lambda is the Conway constant ⓘ |
| hasCombinatorialStructure | decomposes into irreducible subsequences called atoms ⓘ |
| hasConstructionMethod | start with a seed term and iteratively describe runs of identical digits ⓘ |
| hasDescriptionLanguage | English digit names and counts ⓘ |
| hasDigitAlphabet |
1
ⓘ
2 ⓘ 3 ⓘ |
| hasExampleTerm |
1113213211
ⓘ
13112221 ⓘ 312211 ⓘ |
| hasFifthTerm | 111221 ⓘ |
| hasFirstTerm | 1 ⓘ |
| hasFourthTerm | 1211 ⓘ |
| hasGeneralization |
look-and-say sequences in other bases
ⓘ
look-and-say sequences using other symbol alphabets ⓘ |
| hasGrowthRate | approximately 1.303577269 ⓘ |
| hasMathematicalArea |
combinatorics
ⓘ
discrete mathematics ⓘ number theory ⓘ |
| hasNamedConstant |
Conway constant
ⓘ
linked to:
Look-and-say sequence
|
| hasOEISId |
A005150
ⓘ
linked to:
Look-and-say sequence
|
| hasProperty |
admits a finite set of irreducible elements under the evolution rule
ⓘ
different seeds lead to different look-and-say sequences ⓘ digits eventually stabilize to a finite set of allowed blocks ⓘ local patterns evolve independently in the limit ⓘ no term contains the digit 4 or higher when written in standard form ⓘ sequence is not eventually periodic ⓘ terms do not converge in value but lengths diverge to infinity ⓘ terms grow in length roughly exponentially ⓘ |
| hasSecondTerm | 11 ⓘ |
| hasThirdTerm | 21 ⓘ |
| isDescribedIn | On Numbers and Games ⓘ |
| isFamousFor |
nontrivial asymptotic growth analysis by Conway
ⓘ
unexpected regularities in digit patterns ⓘ |
| isRelatedTo |
cellular automata
ⓘ
formal languages ⓘ run-length encoding ⓘ |
| studiedBy |
John Horton Conway
ⓘ
linked to:
John H. Conway
|
| typicalSeed | 1 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Look-and-say sequence Description of subject: The look-and-say sequence is a famous integer sequence where each term is generated by verbally describing the digits of the previous term, studied for its surprising combinatorial and growth properties.
Referenced by (6)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Look-and-say sequence
linked to: Look-and-say sequence
linked to: Look-and-say sequence
linked to: Look-and-say sequence
linked to: Look-and-say sequence