It's the Finite Countdown: Presenting Talking Time's Top 50 Numbers!

[Bulgakov]

Talking Time's Top 50 Numbers

Hi everyone! Thanks for your flexibility and patience as I got everything ready! This is a list of numbers, with some interesting facts, and maybe a few statistics along the way, 'cause I'm that kind of guy.

We'll start off this evening with a few honorable mentions that didn't make the list, but only by a hair.

A List of Numbers

50. 111 (tie)
50. 1024 (tie)
49. 25
48. -273.5
47. 60
45. 9999 (tie)
45. 777 (tie)
43. Graham's Number (tie)
43. 151 (tie)
42. 88
41. 0.25
40. 99
39. 1729
38. 64
37. 11
36. 8675309
35. 1000000000000066600000000000001
34. Tau
33. Planck's Constant
32. 27
31. 1000000
30. 17
29. 256
28. 100
27. Aleph Null
26. 9
25. Square Root of 2
24. 69
23. 108
22. 666
21. 255
19. phi
19. 16
18. 5
17. 6.02214076 * 10^23
16. 6
15. 4
14. 12
13. -1
12. 13
11. 10
10. 42
9. e
8. i
7. 2
6. 3
5. 8

[Bulgakov]

54.

420


Points: 65
Mentions: 2
First Round Rank: 47
First Round Points: 65
Movement between rounds: -7


Person Most Likely to be Giggling in a Hazy Room While Reading This:
Falselogic (Ranked at #2)

Binary Representation: 110100100
Roman Numeral Representation: CDXX
ASCII Symbol: Ƥ
Divisors: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,10,12,14,15,20,21,28,30,35,42,60,70, 84,105,140,210
Other Notables: Least common multiple of all of the first 7 positive integers

420 is an amazing number because it’s relatively small for a number with 23 different divisors. It can also be divided by all of the first 7 integers and 10, meaning that you can split a lot of 420 items a bunch of different ways for small parties. It’s really useful that way!

I feel like there’s something else too….

Oh right.

420 also happens to be a number steeped deep in the lore of pot culture, just like the tea my mother made every morning. You’ve probably heard a number of stories about it, including that it’s a police radio code for marijuana use, that it’s the number of compounds in good ol’ Mary Jane, or many other rumors. In actuality it was slang a group of high school kids made up in the 70s when they were searching for a mythic pot field in California. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

[Bulgakov]

53.

20


Points: 70
Mentions: 3
First Round Rank: 51
First Round Points: 60
Movement between rounds: -2


Person Who Definitely Enjoyed The Second Voyage of the Mimi Way Too Much in Middle School:
Bulgakov (Ranked at #9)

Binary Representation: 10100
Roman Numeral Representation: XX
ASCII Symbol: “Device Control 4”
Divisors: 1,2,4,5,10
Other Notables: can be expressed as 2^2 + 4^2

20 is a great number. $20 is cultural sweet spot where you have just enough money that you can have a little fun, but still feel like maybe you shouldn’t be spending that much on a movie ticket and some sour patch kids when you have Netflix at home. 20 is officially the end of teenage years. It’s the number of sides on your core D&D die. It’s the maximum number of face-turns you need to solve a Rubik’s cube. But most importantly, 20 is the base of the Mayan system of numbers, which pretty much blows your mind when you’re a 6th grader who doesn’t have a lot of friends and likes to make up math problems in their spare time but hasn’t really been exposed to bases yet.

Shut up, you’re jealous.

[Bulgakov]

52.

86


Points: 73
Mentions: 4
First Round Rank: 54
First Round Points: 59
Movement between rounds:+2


Person Who Has Been Forcibly Ejected From the Most Restaurants:
Thraeg (ranked at #4)

Binary Representation: 1010110
Roman Numeral Representation: LXXXVI
ASCII Symbol: V
Divisors: 1,2,43

To “eighty-six” something is to can it, get rid of it, or otherwise eliminate it. In restaurants, bars this is also slang for throwing out an unruly customer. In organized crime, it can be slang for an order to kill. The first recorded use of the number as slang dates back to 1944 in a biography of John Barrymore (apparently he was known for his heavy drinking and was not to be served at some bars).

[Issun]

This list is shaping up to be pretty good.

[Loki]

Two rounds of voting is entirely justified as it got the weed number off the list. False Logic I am very disappointed in you for doing a drug.

In organized crime, it [86] can be slang for an order to kill.

Impossible. Organized crime doesn't recognize any number above 24.

[WildcatJF]

Well the honorable mentions already spiced up the results. I'm intrigued to see where this goes from here!

[Yimothy]

Big fan of the thread title. Looking forward to reading this one.

[Johnny Unusual]

Originally Posted by Loki

Impossible. Organized crime doesn't recognize any number above 24.

"Scientists belief there are as many as 24 stars in the universe."

[Falselogic]

Originally Posted by Loki

Two rounds of voting is entirely justified as it got the weed number off the list. False Logic I am very disappointed in you for doing a drug..

You're really not going to like my #1 pick...

[Johnny Unusual]

Originally Posted by Falselogic

You're really not going to like my #1 pick...

...nice?

[Destil]

"Nothing as pure as math" my ass.

[Daikaiju]

Originally Posted by Bulgakov

420 is an amazing number because it’s relatively small for a number with 23 different divisors. It can also be divided by all of the first 7 integers and 10, meaning that you can split a lot of 420 items a bunch of different ways for small parties. It’s really useful that way!

I feel like there’s something else too….

Off to a blazing start.

[Thraeg]

Originally Posted by Bulgakov

86

Points: 73
Mentions: 4
First Round Rank: 54
First Round Points: 59
Movement between rounds:+2

Person Who Has Been Forcibly Ejected From the Most Restaurants:
Falselogic (ranked at #6)

Hey, I had it at #4. Mostly from watching this guy as a kid:

[Bulgakov]

Originally Posted by Thraeg

Hey, I had it at #4.

You are correct! Sorry; bad data read on my end, I will update the post!

[Bulgakov]

50. (tie)

111


Points: 75
Mentions: 3
First Round Rank: 38
First Round Points: 75
Movement between rounds:-12


Person So Enlightened They Probably Weren’t Even Aware That They Were This Enlightened:
WildcatJF Ranked at #3

Binary Representation: 1101111
Roman Numeral Representation: CXI
ASCII Symbol: o
Divisors: 1,3,37
Other Notables: First 3-digit integer with only one unique digit, palindrome

If you’d like a bit more information on 111’s obviously significant numerology, I’ll just leave this link right here. That said, 111 has a number of more material properties that make it interesting:

• 111 is the atomic number of the element roentgenium (Rg), which I’m sure you all remember from chemistry as a synthetic radioactive element that can only be generated in a lab and has a half life of about 100 seconds.
  
• 111 is considered a very unlucky score in Cricket (a Nelson). Superstitious fans are expected to lift their feet off the ground while their team’s score is 111 or any multiple thereof.
  
• 111 is sometimes referred to as “eleventy-one,” a fun naming convention popularlized by J.R.R. Tolkien in The Fellowship of the Ring.
  
• Likely due to Tolkien and Peter Jackson’s outsize influence on the islands, 111 is also the emergency number in New Zealand.
  
• In the UK, however, 111 is the medical “urgent but non-emergency” number for the NHS (I guess where over-polite Brits call when their arm’s broken but they don’t want to inconvenience anyone). As a result I am shocked that we haven’t heard of a famous BBC comedy episode where someone’s Kiwi cousin has a heart attack while visiting the UK, dials 111, and gets connected to a slow and apathetic operator who keeps telling her to “just calm down, it’s not like this is the emergency line.”

Running average of all numbers under 10 Million: 111
Running average of all numbers It's reasonable to include:111

[Bulgakov]

50. (tie)

1024


Points: 75
Mentions: 4
First Round Rank: 119
First Round Points: 27
Movement between rounds: +69


Most Obvious Computer Nerd:
Destil Ranked at #7

Binary Representation: 10000000000
Roman Numeral Representation: MXXIV
ASCII Symbol: Ѐ
Divisors: 1,2,4,8,16,32,64,128,256,512
Other Notables: Can be expressed as 2^10

Our first significant computer/videogame number related to memory! 1024 is a really important number for computers, thanks to its nice round binary numbering. It’s the maximum number of memory addresses you can assign in a 10-bit binary system. As a result of this, the base unit of modern computer memory systems is the kibibyte. A kibibyte, of course, is 1024 bytes, and a portmanteau of “Kilo” and “Binary.” It is very explicitly not to be confused with a kilobyte, which was originally defined as 1024 bytes, but dropped in 1998 when people got tired of kilobyte sounding like it meant 1000 bytes based on the metric prefix kilo-. So they clarified it by redefining a kilobyte as 1000 bytes and a kibibyte as 1024 bytes, then made sure that our major front-end operating systems still used the old definition of KB (that is, 1024 bytes) to keep things clear for the common person.

And us English system users thought we were the only ones with stupid squabbles about measurement! It’s a good thing that like always, computer scientists and engineers were there to come up with a perfectly acceptable solution with no complications.

Running average of all numbers under 10 Million: 567.5
Running average of all numbers It's reasonable to include: 567.5

[BEAT]

This thread pleases me, but I was SURE 420 would be higher!

Hahahahaha "Higher".

[Bulgakov]

49.

25


Points: 76
Mentions: 4
First Round Rank: 56
First Round Points: 3
Movement between rounds: +7


Person Desperate to Get Back to the Days When They Had No Responsibilities and the World Was Their Oyster:
BEAT Ranked at #12

Binary Representation: 111100
Roman Numeral Representation: XXV
ASCII Symbol: “End of Medium”
Divisors: 1,5
Other Notables: Perfect square of 5, can also be expressed as 3^2 + 4^2

• 25 is the sum of the smallest Pythagorean triple.
  
• While 20 is the end of teenage years, 25 is often seen as a "you're an adult now" age. The human brain finally finishes its development around 25, and more importantly you can rent a car on your own in the US.
  
• There are 25 playable characters in Mario Kart Wii and Super Smash Bros. Melee.
  
• A 25th anniversary, being approximately a third of a human lifespan and also divisible by 5, is often cited as an important anniversary or birthday for various events, businesses, and people. Traditionally, it is considered a “silver anniversary.”
  
• 25 is the atomic number of Manganese, an element found with Iron and a major component in the iron ore magnetite.
  
• 25 is the only 2-digit number that, raised to any power, will produce a number that ends in 25. (25^2 = 625, 25^3 = 1625, etc.).
  
• Baseball teams generally reserve the number “25” for the best slugger on the team (See Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds). 25 is also the size of a full roster baseball team for most of the season.
  
• 25 has been the title of many of music albums including ones by George Michael, A-Ha, Adele, Blues Traveler, Harry Connick, Jr., and many more.
  
• There are 25 prophets mentioned in the Qu’ran.
  
• 25 is the title of a solitaire variant.

Also BEAT really likes this song:

Running average of all numbers under 10 Million: 386.666667
Running average of all numbers It's reasonable to include:386.666667

[Destil]

I'm sorry in advance for my list being dominated by powers of two.

[Kirin]

Huh, I really should've voted for 1024. It'd be very on-brand. But my list was pretty dang stream-of-consciousness and somehow it didn't come up.

[Loki]

Numerology so dumb. How the heck does seeing three ones remind us to be aware of our thoughts? *kicks the concept of numbers into to the trash where it belongs*

[Torzelbaum]

Originally Posted by Bulgakov

20 is the base of the Mayan system of numbers

AKA vigesimal. (I had ranked this number at 19 in both rounds.)

Originally Posted by Bulgakov

50. (tie)

1024

Most Obvious Computer Nerd:
Destil Ranked at #7

I guess it's a lot less obvious that I'm a computer nerd - I had ranked 1024 at 25 and then 20.

Originally Posted by Bulgakov

Movement between rounds: +69

Originally Posted by BEAT

This thread pleases me, but I was SURE 420 would be higher!

Hahahahaha "Higher".

It could have ranked higher but I assume that many people who would have included it forgot to vote.

On a side note I think that guy having fun at work could also be higher.

[Issun]

Jesus Christ how high do cricket scores usually go?

[Johnny Unusual]

Tou should ask how long. Because the answer is literally "days".

[Yimothy]

Maybe 300-500 runs. A test match goes for five days.

[WildcatJF]

Yay I'm already seeing number dividends. And 111 right before my birthday today? A delightful coincidence.

[masterthes]

Voted 86 also for the Maxwell Smart

[Bulgakov]

Originally Posted by WildcatJF

Yay I'm already seeing number dividends. And 111 right before my birthday today? A delightful coincidence.

The gate of opportunity is open for your birthday!

[Johnny Unusual]

Originally Posted by Yimothy

Maybe 300-500 runs. A test match goes for five days.

Wow, not even the REAL match, just a test.