What’s Your Favorite Number?
In 2014, a survey launched by a British mathematics writer has found that seven is the world’s favorite number, reports The Guardian. The numbers three, eight and and four came in second, third and fourth. What makes this amusing is that I was about to do a post that told readers that 7 was my favorite number and a quick google of this topic confirmed that was a favorite for others as well. O.K. but you might ask why? For me, 7 is a complete week, the end of a cycle; it represents rest before starting again. It is also a prime number (after 2, 3, and 5). We also have religious reasons for thinking that 7 is special – think: seven deadly sins and seventh heaven. In nature, you have the seven wonders of the world, seven colours of the rainbow, seven seas and seven continents. In the gambling world, the dots on the opposite sides of an ordinary dice sum to seven and there is a commonly-held belief that a series of seven shuffles will fully randomise a deck of cards.
Newcastle University hosted the “UK Numbers Festival” in 2015 in a variety of venues in and around the northeast of England. An overarching festival question was: “What is your favourite number – and why?” designed to act as a “glue” to bind together the diverse aspects of the festival. This engaging question hoped to capture the imagination of the region and ask the general public to think a little more about numbers and how they influence their lives. Of the 442 people who answered the survey (of a total attendance of 10,000 people at the festival), 7 was the most popular choice for both men and women. [read more here]. PS: you might want to do your own in-class or in-school survey to find the most popular number and tally the results by boys/girls. Try the same task with car number plates too.
