Sunday, October 11, 2015

The Number 17

Seventeen is a number right after 16 and right before 18. In spoken English, 17 and 70 are both confused as they sound the same. When carefully pronounced, they differ in which syllable is stressed. However in dates such as 1798 or when contrasting in the teens (16, 17, 18, 19), the stress is moved to the first syllable. The number 17 has a wide significance in pure mathematics, as well as in applied sciences, law, music, religion, sports, and other cultural phenomena.

This number is described at MIT s "the least random number", according to hacker's lore. This is supposedly because in a study where respondents were asked to choose a random number from 1 to 20.

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