Ask HN: What's your favorite number, and why?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47579420

by QuantumNomad_ • 4 months ago

11 31 4 months ago

news.ycombinator.com

andyjohnson02• 4 months ago

27 is a pretty cool number.

iExploder2• 4 months ago

the coolest number ever - 1337. Approximate melting point of gold in kelvins.

Imustaskforhelp2• 4 months ago

1337 immediately reminds me of 1337x.to which is a piracy website :)

Looks like the word means LEET or (Elite) within BBS forums (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leet) [I had wondered about why 1337x.to team named itself this and then asked AI to then get the reference and then searched it again on wikipedia to get to know more information/confirm it, saying this because I didn't know about this reference till today as I wasn't part of that era.]

iExploder2• 4 months ago

if you know you know, if you dont know you are most likely B1ff :D

oxfordreno• 4 months ago

gib444• 4 months ago

That's Numberwang!

chistev• 4 months ago

Sui!

byoung2• 4 months ago

3...an odd choice, I know

ljf2• 4 months ago

So far, 3 is the most popular!

al_borland• 4 months ago

3 is the magic number.

https://youtu.be/J8lRKCw2_Pk

This is the only Schoolhouse Rock I clearly remember and how I can effortlessly count by 3s.

Jeremy1026• 4 months ago

Blind Melon has a fantastic cover of it too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVfe6rdHRKI

grahammccain• 4 months ago

3. It was my first soccer jersey number.

ljf2• 4 months ago

13, as someone who struggled with their timetables, 13 felt like the verge of wild complex maths

Cheese48923846• 4 months ago

tab width = 3

It's big enough to clearly see indents. But small enough to preserve screen real estate. And no one needs to agree 3 is best because TAB.

tim-tday• 4 months ago

I like 6, maybe 7.

I find that can devalue the enjoyment kids get from their inside joke simply by being one of the olds liking their new favorite number(s).

WorldPeas• 4 months ago

4 is a good number, but I can't explain why, just feels right

Bender• 4 months ago

All of the Sacred Geometry numbers, mostly because they should up in computing just as much as they show up in Geometry, Astronomy and overall in nature.

Also 45,000,000,000 because [1]

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J9MRYJz9-4 [video][1min]

fuzzfactor• 4 months ago

I like zero because it's not easy for everybody to put their finger on.

In some cases you can't even be sure if it's there or not ;)

mhrmsn• 4 months ago

4, because it can be written as 2+2, 2*2, 2^2, and all the other following hyperoperations Hn(2,2)

yen223• 4 months ago

91, which to me is a prime number no matter what the maths say

andyjohnson02• 4 months ago

All odd numbers are obviously prime. Don't believe anyone who says otherwise.

mikewarot• 4 months ago

τ - Tau, of course. It's the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its radius.

Pi is tainted by my home state of Indiana's attempts to legislate its value.

Imustaskforhelp2• 4 months ago

2, you can find all odd and even numbers with its shenanigans and the binary system being base 2.

It's also somewhat of my fascination with silver, being second. I remember this feeling when I was in 5th class or something and me and my friends were talking about lets race to the door and see who gets first.

I don't even know why I remember this but I do but And we were three friends/classmates and I was just thinking, man I am happy being second. I really don't want gold, I am happy with silver medal :)

If I think about it nowadays, I think that it sort of means that I am happy with being the second-best, I don't have an "obsession" with being the best (1) within the short-term that it might impact my chances long-term in things.

I also don't like too-much drama within my life, so I am happy if that drama can get redirected to 1 while I can hopefully try to do my things with patience.

Also, I have made too many is-odd/is-even projects within multiple languages ;)

I also like 25/5, I don't know how to explain this but there is a way to write the exponents of 5^n exponentially

so 5^3=125

5^4=((1 × 5)+1)_25 = 625

5^5= ((6 × 5)+1)_25 = 3125

5^6=((31 × 5)+1)_25= 15625

5^7=((156 × 5)+1)_25 = 78125

I don't know I was just playing with numbers until I kind of hit this thing

As you can see that there is a bit of recursion, you can actually create a formula of 5^n as far as I can tell but I have forgotten the formula

Actually this also has something to do with 2 in the derivations to find it, as 10/2=5 ;)

I wanted to find a ways to code exponents quickly, I tried doing it with any other number but I was unable to do that.

I am not sure what this is called though or if I have discovered something new, It was a trick that I only shared once with my classmates. Nothing too big kinda.

Maybe some mathematician can chime in here ;) if there is a more mathematical term to what I have found or if what I have found is even new [I extremely doubt it but hey who knows ;) ]

Either way I was proud of myself for what I had discovered and I also had told my mom about it iirc :]

(Anecdotally I also tried discovering the sum of n numbers accidentally when I was in 6th class by trying to sum the odd numbers as even + 1 and even as 2 × ( sequence themselves but with half the numbers), maybe a bit of recursion itself until I stumbled on the n (n+1)/2, later I found that gauss had also done something similar maybe even around the same age but I can't even compare myself to the legend that gauss is, but still once again, proud of this too)

I still kind of remember using pencil if I remember correctly for this thing as pens were still new to me back then.

Also the explaination of then later the triangle n (n+1) / 2 genuinely felt so intuitive later because of these attempts by me.

Actually this also has something to do with 2 in the derivations to find it, as 10/2=5 ;)

Rendello• 4 months ago

Plus, 2+2 = 2*2 = 2² = 2↑↑2 = 2↑↑↑2

I only knew the basic ones from this meme, but the hyperoperations are explained in the explanation video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEQOv61Gveg

andogi• 4 months ago

7777777 — lucky vibes.

badenglish• 4 months ago

23. it is almost e^π

hugolelievre• 4 months ago

I got 2: 60 and 7. 60 because it can be divided by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 10, it's sort of a "magic" number And 7, bc it's my birth day, and I like football and number 7 is a badass one

_adq2• 4 months ago

Pi is a good one. Centered on the 360th decimal place are the digits 360.

mindwork• 4 months ago

1 is the loneliest number that you'll ever do

2 can be as bad as 1

It's the loneliest number since the number 1

p341127• 4 months ago

7. I think it has to do with me reading the bible when I was young and being fixed at the 7th day - the rest day XD

shivang2607• 4 months ago

200 Status 200 is green in color at most places and it means everything is alright :)

Ask HN: What's your favorite number, and why?

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