Seeing 169 Everywhere: Is It Just a Coincidence?

[Mentallic]

On my 14^th birthday when I bought a bike lock to go with my nifty new bike, I was somewhat surprised to see that the code for the lock was preset at 169 which was luckily enough also my house number.

Well, ever since then I happen to see this number much more often than on average. It seems to pop up everywhere for me... in many places that all have no correlation with each other.

Of course it could just be that I'm being paranoid about nothing and just notice this number because I've been stimulated to do so, but I also take into account how many times I see a range of numbers in the 160's and 170's compared to 169 and I barely ever seem to spot these. It also doesn't help that pricing advertisers prefer to cut a dollar short of a nice multiple of 10 and so as a result I have 169 popping up more often than I deem necessary once again.

I suppose I'm losing my mind, so I'll be awaiting the "you're nuts and its all in your (screwed up) mind" responses to ease my anxiety.

 

[jobyts]

If your computer cannot get a DHCP address, some operating systems allocate a 169.xx.xx.xx IP address locally. That's all I can think of that number. So you are right; it's a cursed number when you need something urgently from the internet, like the HTTP 404.

 

[DaveC426913]

On my 14^th birthday when I bought a bike lock to go with my nifty new bike, I was somewhat surprised to see that the code for the lock was preset at 169 which was luckily enough also my house number.

Now, if it had been your 13th birthday...

(13^2 = 169.)

... notice this number because I've been stimulated to do so...

It is very common. I can't count the number of times I've heard or read a new word for the first time in my life, and then hear it twice more within 24 hours.

 

[waht]

Now, if it had been your 13th birthday...

(13^2 = 169.)

Friday was 2 days ago...

Well, ever since then I happen to see this number much more often than on average. It seems to pop up everywhere for me... in many places that all have no correlation with each other.

This happened to me after 9/11. When looked at the clock and if caught 911, it would incite the "wow" moment. How can it be? But I realized I was checking out time all the time, and filtering it out accordingly. But somehow only 911 got past the firewall and that only occurred at 9:11 am or pm.

 

[leroyjenkens]

I can't remember ever noticing the number 169 anywhere, so it must be you keeping a mental note of every time you do see it. We see a lot of numbers in our lives.

Now, if it had been your 13th birthday...

(13^2 = 169.)

14*169/14 = 169... now I'm scared...

 

[Dadface]

169=13 squared and 961=31 squared.

 

[jobyts]

And that was Mentallic's 916th posting.

Now I'm really getting scared.

 

[Dadface]

And look above at how many posts jobyt has made.

 

[DaveC426913]

http://ragb.ag/post/60505485/a-new-sex-position" . (nsfw)

 

[zoobyshoe]

I can't count the number of times I've heard or read a new word for the first time in my life, and then hear it twice more within 24 hours.

It's prolly happened 169 times.

 

[ideasrule]

And look above at how many posts jobyt has made.

Alright, now I am getting scared.

 

[DaveC426913]

Alright, now I am getting scared.

There is only one thing to do. Keep this thread going to 157 more posts and then get it locked.

 

[jobyts]

Dave, can you please remove that 691 from you member name. It scared me to death

Dadface, that was a nice observation

 

[Mentallic]

ok ok, if the sarcasm had been any less evident I would've been empathizing with your fears.

14*169/14 = 169... now I'm scared...

OMG I never thought about it that way!

If your computer cannot get a DHCP address, some operating systems allocate a 169.xx.xx.xx IP address locally. That's all I can think of that number. So you are right; it's a cursed number when you need something urgently from the internet, like the HTTP 404.

I've noticed that also! This one would've been a few months back when I was blindingly following the steps of an over-the-phone assistant to fix my internet.

Oh and yeah of course we see numbers a lot in our every day lives. But the odds of 169 appearing more often than not? And I love how you can find more numbers in a shopping centre than in my math books

 

[Phrak]

This is getting even spookier. The number fourteen appears 9 times in this thread, and so does the number six hundred and ninty one!

 

[ideasrule]

http://ragb.ag/post/60505485/a-new-sex-position" . (nsfw)

They must have been doing 69 in a really uncomfortable orientation.

 

[Pythagorean]

It is very common. I can't count the number of times I've heard or read a new word for the first time in my life, and then hear it twice more within 24 hours.

Yeah. When my SO was pregnant, every TV show and movie I watched happened to have pregnant chicks in it; they were probably always there. I just notice it now.

 

[Matterwave]

I notice 3.14 a lot on the clock. 3:14PM or 3:14AM

Yea...

...

 

[Mentallic]

I once counted 3.14 sticks in my hand.
Now THAT's incredible...

 

[bobquantum]

You guys are weird.

 

[Borek]

Have you ever noticed that 6I9 has rotational symmetry?

 

[Evo]

Every time I see the title of this thread I read "cursed members", and I think it's about me.

 

[jobyts]

Have you ever noticed that 6I9 has rotational symmetry?

It may have. But 619 does not make any sense as per Dave's post (#9)

 

[Mentallic]

It may have. But 619 does not make any sense as per Dave's post (#9)

Can't you imagine the boyfriend made up his mind about what to do and decided to slip in between them both?

 

[DaveC426913]

Every time I see the title of this thread I read "cursed members", and I think it's about me.

I did the same thing!

 

[CEL]

If you have a wound in your foot and you trip in a stone, you say "I just bumped in my sore point!".
It is not true, simply if you bump elsewhere, it does not hurt and you don't notice it.
The number 169 probably appears as often as 214. But you don´t notice when you find the number 214.

 

[FlexGunship]

I guess I'll pose an actual response:

This phenomenon is well understood in psychology and it goes a long way to describing why people still believe in psychics. Essentially, the concept boils down to this: "you remember the hits and forget the misses." (Which, as it just occurred to me, would be a hilarious punchline to a domestic abuse joke.)

A useful experiment is to simply pick a new number (at random, but hopefully just as common as 169) and decide that the new number is as important. I tried this once with "1111." I found myself accepting the time as a valid example ("11:11"), I accepted 11s that were near each other. Even sometimes making exceptions for 111s if it looked like there were other 1s around. I even bought a synthesizer that cost $1111.00 on eBay.

The thing is that I've completely forgotten all the times I saw 3141 and ignored it. The purchase price of my new monitor didn't have any special meaning. I found Nov. 11th, to be significant, but Oct. 26th blew right by.

If you want to convince yourself, take the number "42" (to choose a number randomly <wink>) and keep track of that as much as you keep track of 169. I'd be interested to see which it more common.

 

[DaveC426913]

If you want to convince yourself, take the number "42" (to choose a number randomly <wink>) and keep track of that as much as you keep track of 169. I'd be interested to see which it more common.

1] Kind of tricky to do, since you're asking us to effectively "force" ourselves to "happen to notice" numbers.

2] The artifical number chosen should be similar in magnitude to 169. Smaller numbers such as 42 are statistically much more likely to show up.

 

[FlexGunship]

1] Kind of tricky to do, since you're asking us to effectively "force" ourselves to "happen to notice" numbers.

2] The artifical number chosen should be similar in magnitude to 169. Smaller numbers such as 42 are statistically much more likely to show up.

I agree with point number (1), to a degree, however I think you'd be surprised at how quickly your subconscious gets up to speed. Remember that the initial positive response was forced. He "chose" to recognize 169 as something to remember. I'm sure the fact that it was a combination to a lock helps to reinforce the need to REMEMBER this number. However, simply choosing to remember a different number does not somehow interfere with the outcome.

Your second point is correct but not for the reason you state. Benford's Law (i.e. the law of "forensic accounting") shows the the natural distribution of the first digit in numbers (any numbers) is predictable. If you're unfamiliar with this law, then I suggest you read about it before calling me wrong.

Benford's Law says that roughly 30% of numbers in a naturalistic distribution should begin with 1. And about 17.6% will start with a 2. Just over 12% will begin with a 3. And so on, until you get to 9 which should occur about 4.6% of the time.

Seriously. There is even a proof showing that Benford's Law exhibits scale invariance (if that doesn't blow your mind, then you don't understand what it means). An example would be the height of the 60 tallest buildings in the world. If you write out the height in meters, or the height in feet, you get roughly the same distribution. IT'S TRUE! (The limitation being that the validity of the Law depends upon using the limits of the scale: you could not take the 60 most medium sized buildings and find the same distribution. Furthermore the sample set increases in accuracy as the number of orders of magnitude is increase. Data from 0 to 100,000 will show the distribution better than data from 0 to 100.)

So, you're correct, the number we are discussing as a random value to try to notice should also begin with 1. How about the number "154?" I don't know... just pick one.

If you're not familiar with Benford's Law, please read about it before calling me a liar. Then check your last 100 purchase receipts to further convince yourself.

 

[DaveC426913]

OK but still, you're going to encounter two digit numbers much more often than 3 digit numbers. So, if you pick a 2 digit number such as 42 for your control, the results will be meaningless when comparing frequency of encounter with 169.

 

[FlexGunship]

I would disagree with that in principle alone. There are 900 3-digit numbers, but only 90 2-digit numbers. So, if you ONE 3-digit number for every TEN 2-digit numbers, then the relationship still holds true. Let's say you take ONLY the case of the leading digit being a "1."

30% * 900 * 1/10 = 30% * 90 * 1/1

Right?

It's just a thought. Specifics really aren't necessary.

 

[DaveC426913]

I would disagree with that in principle alone. There are 900 3-digit numbers, but only 90 2-digit numbers. So, if you ONE 3-digit number for every TEN 2-digit numbers, then the relationship still holds true. Let's say you take ONLY the case of the leading digit being a "1."

30% * 900 * 1/10 = 30% * 90 * 1/1

Right?

It's just a thought. Specifics really aren't necessary.

But they're not evenly distributed in manifestation.

For starters, we're talking about seeing numbers.

Every street has address numbers in the 1-9 range too many in fact to make them significant. Almost all streets have numbers from 10-99 on them. Most streets have 100-999 on them. Few streets have 1000 to 9999 on them.

Dollar numbers in the front section of the newspaper: single digits will be too numerous to count. Double digits will be common. Triple digits will be rare enough that individual ones might be significant if repeated. I'll bet you'll have a tough time finding more than a couple of four-digit numbers.

Street names: I live on Third Street. Our town goes up to Fortieth street. How many One Hundredth Streets do you think there are in the whole world?

 

[FlexGunship]

But they're not evenly distributed in manifestation.

For starters, we're talking about seeing numbers.

Every street has address numbers in the 1-9 range too many in fact to make them significant. Almost all streets have numbers from 10-99 on them. Most streets have 100-999 on them. Few streets have 1000 to 9999 on them.

Dollar numbers in the front section of the newspaper: single digits will be too numerous to count. Double digits will be common. Triple digits will be rare enough that individual ones might be significant if repeated. I'll bet you'll have a tough time finding more than a couple of four-digit numbers.

Street names: I live on Third Street. Our town goes up to Fortieth street. How many One Hundredth Streets do you think there are in the whole world?

Okay, I was concerned that this would be a problem. I suggest you actually read Benford's Law and look at examples. A page from the phone book would be an ideal example. For each individual in the phone book, write down the first digit of their address. If their address is 4 Third Street, then use 4. If their address is 456 Thirty-Second Ave, then use 4. If one guy on the page has the address 3628374382929484575x10^34 Smith Street, use 3.

Following this process you would find that 30% start with 1, about 17% start with 2... etc...

 

[FlexGunship]

Oh, wait... your gripe was with my choice of number, not with my application of Benford's Law. Gotcha. Yes; you're right. I was suggesting that he change to a random number whose first digit is the same first digit as his "significant" number.

My apologies for the confusion. I stand corrected.

Use 142 instead of 42 then.

You should notice it as often as 169 in casual situations.

 

[DaveC426913]

Okay, I was concerned that this would be a problem. I suggest you actually read Benford's Law and ...

...

Oh, wait... your gripe was with my choice of number, not with my application of Benford's Law.

Use 142 instead of 42 then.

You should notice it as often as 169 in casual situations.