If you ask someone to name any number in the range from 1 to 10, then in most cases the interlocutor will name the number seven. Recently, mathematician Alex Bellos tried to verify this fact by collecting statistics, and at the same time to figure out why people most often choose certain numbers and why different people react to different numbers differently.
More than 44,000 people took part in the online survey conducted by the scientist. Bellos asked them what number is their favorite. Almost 10 percent named the seven as such. 7.5 percent - three. 60 percent preferred odd numbers. The most "unloved" number was 110: no one named it.
The easiest way, according to Bellos, to explain the popularity of the seven. The researcher believes that this is the most "isolated" single-digit number. “Of the first ten integers, the 7 is the simplest,” he says. "It cannot be doubled, staying within the top ten, or divided by two or three."
Bellos also found out that emotional associations influence the choice of numbers. Thus, the number one was characterized by the respondents as “independent, strong and courageous”. The deuce was called "cautious, wise, gentle and pleasant." Three - "luxurious and imagining a lot of herself." And four - the number "calm and mischievous."
In addition, “in human culture it is customary to associate certain mystical properties with numbers,” the author of the study adds. So, people more often choose odd numbers, since even numbers are associated with death - after all, an odd number of flowers, for example, are placed on the grave, “hinting” that the days of the deceased are numbered …
Only a few adherents of the occult love the numbers 6, 66 or 666, because these are the "numbers of Satan." Even a non-superstitious person is unlikely to choose such a number of his own free will … Numbers 13 are feared by very, very many. If you offer to choose between 12 and 13 or 13 and 14, then most likely the person will choose 12 or 14, despite the unpopularity of even numbers …
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As for the beloved number 3 by many, in religion and esotericism it symbolizes the Trinity, or Trinity, a symbol of the unification of the physical and spiritual principles. There are many sayings associated with the "troika". For example: "God loves the Trinity", "They wait for the promised three years."
Seven is the number of wisdom, a symbol of the seven elements. Used in many magical and esoteric traditions. So, in ancient Greece he was called "the number of Apollo", the most beautiful of the Olympic gods. It symbolized perfection. At the same time, the ancient Greeks believed that the Styx river flows around hell 7 times, by the way, Virgil's was divided into 7 regions - "seven circles of hell".
According to Islam, only in the seventh heaven is the soul capable of experiencing the highest bliss. And Christians adopted from Buddhists the custom of giving seven elephants for good luck.
Seven is used in many proverbs and sayings: "Seven spans in the forehead", "Measure seven times, cut once", "Seven troubles - one answer", "Seven nannies have a child without an eye", etc.
Favorite numbers are more often single or two-digit numbers. Less often - three-digit and more … Often the choice of a favorite number is due to some events in a person's life. Let's say he was born on the 9th, and therefore his favorite number is 9. Or, on the 17th, some joyful event happened in his life, and his favorite number becomes 17 …
There are also "fatal" numbers that a person is afraid of, because they bring him misfortune. So, in the family of the Russian princes Yusupovs feared the number 26. The fact is that the Yusupovs came from the family of the Khan of the Nogai Horde Yusuf-Murza. Wanting to make peace with Moscow, he sent his sons to the court of the Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible.
When news reached the Horde about the transition of Yusuf's sons from Mohammedanism to Orthodoxy (by that time Khan Yusuf-Murza himself had been treacherously stabbed to death by his brother), one of the Nogai sorceresses put a curse on them. According to him, in each generation of the Yusupov “apostate” clan, only one of the children will survive until the age of twenty-six, and this will continue until their clan is completely destroyed …
The curse came true. No matter how many children the women gave birth to in the Yusupov family, only one of them lived to be twenty-six years old … By the way, the number of letters in the name, patronymic and surname of the last prince in the family who lived in the era of tsarist Russia - Felix Yusupov - was also 26. He became one of the killers of the famous Grigory Rasputin. After the revolution, the Yusupovs were forced to emigrate and lived in rather cramped circumstances. Their family fell into decay … It is difficult to say whether the "fatal" number played a role here …
Diana Merlin