What's your favorite number? and worst?

[lovermuffin]

...OK, this is a rip-off of staffee's thread, but it got me thinking about numbers as well. And while, as a lover of language I feel that math is my arch-enemy, I believe that there is some beauty to be found in it.

So, as for my favorite number, it's 19.
My least favorite is 9.

It has been said that sevants, people afflicted by a certain form of autism, can actually "feel" numbers, that whole lanscapes can form in their minds about what numbers look like. Do you think that numbers can give people feelings? Do you think that concepts such as perfect and imperfect numbers, and male and female numbers exist, or are they, like the numbers themselves, just man-made concepts?

Here's a link to a story about a savant: http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Health/story?id=830166&page=1

In a half-way unrelated topic, I think that there is something poetic about the second law of thermodynamics, the fact that everything moves toward increasing entropy, that the nature of things is to become more random. Accepting this could make one at peace with the universe...
What makes math beautiful? It's perfection? Do you feel similarly or differently?

 

[Mari]

Number 3 and 7 are considered mystical numbers, I'm told, and though I don't know much about mysticism, I just like the idea that they're mystical.

13 is considered bad luck in some cultures, but good luck in others, so I like it for good luck because...um...I'm an optimist, I guess.


Another answer is that I'm a synaesthete, so numbers have extra associations for me, especially color. Four has always been my favorite number, probably because it's a blue that I like. My least favorites are three and four digits; they seem muddled and ugly.

 

[steffee]

I prefer odd numbers to even numbers in the single digits.

I like 42.

I don't think odd-even or even-odd numbers like 14, 16 or 23, 25 etc, look very appealing.

8 is apparently the Chinese symbol for good luck, so maybe 8.

 

[Stewart]

Jeez, what next? What's your favourite pointless post?

 

[sirmyk]

Everyone chooses favorite numbers between 0 and 100 for the most part, so I'm going to say 3,234,002 is my favorite, and 3.14159...... is my least favorite. Next up: favorite brand of socks!

 

[eliott]

Gold Toe.

 

[lovermuffin]

Another answer is that I'm a synaesthete, so numbers have extra associations for me, especially color. Four has always been my favorite number, probably because it's a blue that I like. My least favorites are three and four digits; they seem muddled and ugly.

I think that's fascinating. Do you like doing math?

 

[lovermuffin]

Jeez, what next? What's your favourite pointless post?

And with over 4,000 posts, you haven't made any? Pah! The thread is for curiosity's sake, so I don't find it pointless

 

[MonkeyCatcher]

My favourite number is 13, but I can't say that I have a least favourite number.

 

[Mari]

Do you like doing math?

I go into contortions just figuring a restaurant tip.

Synaesthesia isn't linked to math aptitude--not that I've ever heard, anyway. Some synaesthetes can remember numbers easier because of color associations, but that's about it.

One of the problems for us is when numbers and letters are all in different colors, like when they're teaching counting and the alphabet to little children. The colors conflict with our learning because the colors aren't our colors.

There is also a lot of other mixing of the senses in synaesthesia. Some of us feel sound, see tastes, perceive time as shapes, etc. For more information, here are two resources:

"For Some, Pain Is Orange," Smithsonian Magazine, February, 2001, pp. 48-54. Also the Letters in the April 2001 issue, p. 14.

And

http://www.sensequence.de/indexen.html