![]() ![]() However, the number 9 (‘kao’) is the luckiest of them all: it is thought to be lucky because, when pronounced in Thai, it sounds like ‘moving forward’ (‘kaw-nah’ – while it doesn’t look similar, it sounds similar!). ![]() Odd numbers tend to be regarded as luckier than even numbers, with the number 3 (‘sam’) always seen as a good pick. In Thai folklore, there are lucky and unlucky numbers. We can distinguish and make a judgement about seven different categories, and remember around seven objects at a glance.Belief and superstition play a significant role in Thai society, with almost everybody in Thailand believing in the power of wishing and believing. Our immediate memory has been shown to perform well when remembering up to, and no more than, seven things. Miller claims that it is more than just coincidence that the number 7 seems to be all around us. Perhaps part of the answer lies in a seminal paper published in 1956 by the psychologist George A Miller called “ The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two”. A number of people said that they had no idea why they liked it. Why did so many people pick 7?Ī lot of people expressed an interest in number 7 for a variety of reasons and not just because it was considered lucky. This goes against certain beliefs about odd and even numbers, such as in Pythagorean theory and the Chinese philosophy of Yin and Yang, in which numbers were viewed as possessing gender – odd numbers, masculine and even numbers, feminine. But 55% of men picked an odd number, while 60% of women went “odd”. ![]() No female chose a negative number whereas three men did. By contrast, 85% of men chose a number lower than 64. The distribution of favourite numbers was less for women, 85% of whom chose a number less than 30. The survey revealed some other findings, too. Seven was the most popular choice for both men and women. Here are the most popular numbers of the 442 people who answered the survey (of a total atttendance of 10,000 people at the festival). Steve Humble/Newcastle University, Author provided This engaging question hoped to capture the imagination of the region and ask the general public to think a little more about numbers and how they influence their lives. An overarching festival question was: “What is your favourite number – and why?” designed to act as a “glue” to bind together the diverse aspects of the festival. Newcastle University hosted the “ UK Numbers Festival” in 2015 in a variety of venues in and around the northeast of England. Strangely, eight perfect riffle shuffles will return a 52-card deck to its original order. In the gambling world, the dots on the opposite sides of an ordinary dice sum to seven and there is a commonly-held belief that a series of seven shuffles will fully randomise a deck of cards. In nature, you have the seven wonders of the world, seven colours of the rainbow, seven seas and seven continents. Gaz via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SAīut we also have religious reasons for thinking that 7 is special – think: seven deadly sins and seventh heaven. Why do we put importance on certain numbers? Could David Beckham’s words give us an insight into the real reason why people feel number 7 is lucky, or could it be that the history of the number permeates our culture so much that we are immersed in it without really knowing why. And when the manager decided to give it to me, it was special. I didn’t see it as an intimidation, I saw it as a honour … I always wanted the No 7 shirt, I just never thought I’d get it. The only reason I wanted to wear the No 7 shirt was because of these players. It was George Best’s, Bryan Robson’s, Eric Cantona’s. It always was an inspiration for me, but it was never my shirt. But it was Manchester United that made the number seven shirt iconic by putting their best players in it – perhaps most famously David Beckham, who said: Football teams have been wearing numbers since Arsenal experimented with putting their players in numbered shirts in 1928 (it didn’t bring them much luck – they lost 3-2 to Sheffield Wednesday).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |