8,998.1682

If numbers were people then I can imagine crossing the road to avoid this one - it looks somehow demented. High figures just don't look right with lots of decimal places behind them, I'm not sure why.

Unless that decimal point is serving to divide it into two separate numbers... That might make it easier to infer any coincidental significance at least.

So lets take 1682, did anything significant happen in that year? Apart from Vesuvius erupting and Halley's comet passing by, it was a notable year for being the last in which English citizens were burned at the stake for being witches. According to wikipedia:

"They had been accused of speaking in unknown languages as well as practicing knowledge beyond their natural abilities, and acting in peculiar manners."

I expect my calculator would have also been barbequed in those days, for much the same reasons. As for the other number, well... 8,998 americans died of aids in 2001, I'm sure there are some fanatics out there who would condemn those victims with the same religious zeal as the witch burners.

Morbid stuff.