The Psychology of Numbers

The Number 1
We love one despite, according to Three Dog Night, it being the loneliest number. We love one when our sports team's ranking reaches it. Automobile drivers often greet each other by displaying the symbol for one via their middle fingers. One is the starting point for things at least until we discover zero.

The Number 0
Zero eluded many civilizations. The few who discovered zero early became superior engineering empires. Zero is where we get the idea of "round numbers." Numbers ending in zero hold a special demarcation point. We celebrate birthdays and anniversaries ending in zero as major milestones. Our affinity for zero as reset point is used against us when prices ending in 99¢ fool us into thinking we're getting a bargain. Zero holds the magic mathematical property of being the only number that cannot be used as a denominator. Dividing by zero causes black holes.

The Number 5
Our love of five obviously comes from the fact that we have five digits on each extremity. When we first learn to count, we naturally count our fingers. Five is the natural half-way point to counting all our fingers unless your parents were siblings.

The Number 6
Bees instinctively build the cells of their hives in hexagons. The number six is hidden deep within the DNA of every creature on Earth. The Chinese were the first to discover the mystical properties of the number six when in the fourth century A.D., Wong Lo Pan, restaurant owner in Shanghai posted the first notice reading "20% gratuity added for parties of 6 or more." The Chinese characters for this have been tattooed on unsuspecting teenagers ever since.

The Number 7
Seven has long been a mystical or sacred number. There are many theories as to why, but the real reason may be embedded in our unconscious brains. Human memory seems to work in sevens. Scientist call this "chunking." To store information in our long-term memory, we break it up into chunks which, more often than not, are chunks of seven. A recent change in my local telephone system which necessitates the use of ten digits instead of seven is causing much confusion. Long-term memory is a difficult thing to retrain.

Other Numbers
Not all things can be constricted by base-ten numbers. The Golden Mean (1.6180339...) and Pi (3.14159...) are such numbers. Curiously, the Golden mean shows up often in natural construction like the shell of the nautilus. Is this oddity also programmed into our DNA? Pi, the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, is quite the enigma. It is a constant ratio, regardless of the circle's size, that expresses itself in a non-terminating, repeating decimal. Pi shows up in unexpected places simply due to its simple elegance. The pyramids of Egypt display the ratio probably because the architects used wheels as measuring devices to layout the landscape.

In General
Our perception and use of numbers has a profound effect on our daily lives. It is part of how we perceive the world. Things like speed limits are mostly expressed in numbers ending with zero or five regardless of whether the units are imperial or metric. Most people plan their day around the numbers on the clock. Others take numbers to the extreme like those who suffer from triskaidekaphobia, the fear to the number 13.

It is said that mathematics is the language of the universe. Somewhere, on an atomic level, numbers are the very fabric of our existence. It isn't difficult to believe some numbers are part of our DNA. Of course, hyper-extending this to numerology, lucky numbers, or a reason to play the lottery, just proves most people don't understand math. But that's a rant for another time.