I've set up an internet survey about favourite numbers: www.favouritenumber.net The idea emerged since I get asked a lot what my favourite number is. I dont have one, but I noticed that not only do most people expect a maths writer to have one, but they have deeply held convictions about their own favourite numbers. So, I thought I would try to quantify the world's favourite numbers. Ambitious I know, but in 24 hours since the site went live I have had about 3500 entries, mostly from the UK and USA, but also from dozens of other countries. Already interesting patterns are emerging, as well as interesting reasons for choosing the numbers. The survey i think will be interesting more for its qualitative results. If you dont have a favourite number, you are not excluded from taking part. There is a box for you. Please take part and share the link! I hope to have results ready for next year. Alex
I guess we're not allowed to say: That number which encodes the daily closing values of the Dow, the S&P, the Nasdaq, and the Euro/$, GBP/$, Yen/$, for the date range 2010-2020. At 01:13 AM 6/2/2011, Alex Bellos wrote:
I've set up an internet survey about favourite numbers:
www.favouritenumber.net
The idea emerged since I get asked a lot what my favourite number is. I dont have one, but I noticed that not only do most people expect a maths writer to have one, but they have deeply held convictions about their own favourite numbers.
So, I thought I would try to quantify the world's favourite numbers. Ambitious I know, but in 24 hours since the site went live I have had about 3500 entries, mostly from the UK and USA, but also from dozens of other countries.
Already interesting patterns are emerging, as well as interesting reasons for choosing the numbers. The survey i think will be interesting more for its qualitative results.
If you dont have a favourite number, you are not excluded from taking part. There is a box for you.
Please take part and share the link! I hope to have results ready for next year.
Alex
John Baez spoke about three of his favorite numbers at the Rankin Lectures in 2008: "I've noticed over the years that different numbers have their own "personalities". If you're a mathematician doing a calculation and you get the answer 248, it means something completely different than if you get 247 — because the number 248 shows up in all sorts of amazing places, while 247 is just dull. So when I was invited to give the Rankin Lectures in Glasgow, I thought it would be fun to explain this idea with some examples. I decided to give separate talks on three of my favorite numbers: 5, 8, and 24." http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/numbers/ -- Mike Stay - metaweta@gmail.com http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~mike http://reperiendi.wordpress.com
Hi Alex, Okay I'll have a look at your survey. Actually, my favourite number is Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, but I think Ying Tong Yiddle I Po comes in a close second. Cheers, Lee At 09:13 AM 6/2/2011 +0100, you wrote:
I've set up an internet survey about favourite numbers:
www.favouritenumber.net
The idea emerged since I get asked a lot what my favourite number is. I dont have one, but I noticed that not only do most people expect a maths writer to have one, but they have deeply held convictions about their own favourite numbers.
So, I thought I would try to quantify the world's favourite numbers. Ambitious I know, but in 24 hours since the site went live I have had about 3500 entries, mostly from the UK and USA, but also from dozens of other countries.
Already interesting patterns are emerging, as well as interesting reasons for choosing the numbers. The survey i think will be interesting more for its qualitative results.
If you dont have a favourite number, you are not excluded from taking part. There is a box for you.
Please take part and share the link! I hope to have results ready for next year.
Alex _______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
participants (4)
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Alex Bellos -
Henry Baker -
Lee Sallows -
Mike Stay