I believe in 47. Do you?
Wednesday, January 4, 2006 at 10:11AM I once had a student who wrote an essay about Fibonacci's principle and the effects of harmonics in religious music. It was done as part of an interesting first year course I tutored called "An Introduction to the Study of Religion" at Rhodes University.
I found the essay (written by a Doctoral student in Music, who was doing the ISR course for non degree purposes) extremely interesting. Fibonacci was a mathematician who discovered that the ratio between sets of numbers was often repeated in nature. The Fibonacci numbers are: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89.... etc. Interestingly enough this ratio can be observed in most aspects of nature including things such as the proportions of flowers, shells, human limbs, and even the cycles of modern stock markets! Of course this student showed how the ratio between octave scales revealed this natural design element in creation, and as such had the capacity for a 'holy' or 'spiritual' effect.
So, what about 47!?
I came across an interesting article the other day about a strange group of persons who believe that the number 47 (not just the number 42 - check the link if it doesn't make sense) has some special, mystical, meaning.
I read the wiki entry about it. It seems to make sense! I'm a 47-ian now! I believe! It is a special number!!! Well sort of! You can read all about it here:
Amont other things. Here are a few points of interest about the religous number, peace be upon it.
Forty-seven is also:
* the number of miracles performed by Jesus listed in the New Testament
* the code for international direct dial phone calls to Norway.
* the model number of the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt WWII fighter bomber
* the number of the French département Lot-et-Garonne.
* the number of mountains in "the 47" High Peaks of the Adirondacks.
* the number of samurai involved in the famous historical Ako vendetta; sometimes referred to as the 47 Ronin.
* the number of bullets that killed Pancho Villa in 1923.
* the model number of the AK-47 assault rifle.
* the year AD 47, 47 BC, and 1947.
And here are a few more interesting facts (follow this link to the wiki):
According to a joke by Rick Berman (the co-creator and executive producer of several Star Trek series), "47 is 42, corrected for inflation". This explanation is referenced in a Sev Trek cartoon.
Eventually it spread outside of Star Trek; 47s have been spotted in The Simpsons, Law & Order, NYPD Blue, Threshold, Alias, Lost, Scrubs, and The West Wing.
47 also has been placed in video games in the same deliberate way for almost 20 years. Examples include Earl Weaver Baseball (the batter's uniform number is 47), Hitman (the name of the main character is 47), and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (HK-47).
In 1998, Japanese electronic musician Takako Minekawa released the album Cloudy Cloud Calculator, which featured a song about the number 47 entitled Kangaroo Pocket Calculator. The song repeatedly states that "47 is a magical number. 47 plus 2 equals 49. 47 times 2 equals 94. 49 and 94. 94 and 49. Relationship between 47 and 2, is magic" and eventually concludes "Isn't it a coincidence?"
No, it's not deep, it's just silly! Love and blessing for 2006!
Reader Comments (2)
Hey Dion
I reckon you should read Richard Dawkin's "unweaving the Rainbow"...
somewhere in there he talks about coincidence: there is no such thing as coincidence! Are brains are trained to locate patterns... like when I was a kid (or the other day with my new Christmas present) I would be looking for a particular blue block of lego, and I wouldn't notice any other colours. Are brains are designed to do search patterns... it goes back to our need to locate the predator in the grass when we wore bear skins. Anyway, there is no coincidences, but we THINK there are. A close relative gets cancer, and suddenly we are amazed at how many people around us have or are affected by cancer... there seems to be a higher incidence of cancer now that our relative has it. Not true, we simply notice all the other incidences more readily because 'cancer' is sitting in our forebrain.
Now the similarities to JFK's and Lincoln's assisinations... now that is more like a good conspiracy theory...
or the similarities to the last time Liverpool won the European Cup and this last time... freaky stuff
Fascinating. I have been trying to divide 144000 by 666 and come up with 47, without much success. Any hints?
Peter Woods