The Numbers in LOST, as seen in the eyes of a psuedo-maths geek

Psuedo, becasue I'm not crazy enough to do a maths degree. :P (No I'm not bitter about not being able to make it to Maths Olympic when I was in high school)

Now, I stopped watching LOST (along with most engineers) because it's fallen as a victim of "Americanitis". It's dragging on without resolving plot, although Geoff did mention the finale for season 2 wasn't half bad, I'll have to see it to judge it. Still, as I always said, if it's been an anime, ALL the mystery would be shown and this season we'll have an even more fantastic story. All hail anime!

Now, back to the topic, I was looking at the famous "numbers" on series (being 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42), and I'm seeing the fact that, maybe, just maybe, the writers aren't morons. (It's only the producers. Grr.)

• Let's start with a no-brainer: 4+8+15+16+23+42=108. Every 108 minutes, these numbers needed to be entered.


• 4 = 2+2, 2*2, 2^2... not to mention the smallest composite number. Also a square number. How nice. There's also four classical element (well, not counting quintessence) Bonus cool points


• 8 = 2*2*2 = 2^3. Not as neat. But it's a Fibonacci number. Also there are 8 trigrams in I Ching. So it claims cool points.


• 15. This is trickier, but still. 15 is the sum of any row, column, diagonal in a 3x3 magic square. And magic squares are always cool.


• 16 = 2*2*2*2 = 4*4. You know what that means right? It means it's 2^4 as well as 4^2. Not to mention it's the base for Hex numbers.


• 23. NOW we get interesting. It's a prime! Not only is it a prime, it's the sacred number of Discordian. (Yes I'm reading the Illuminatus! trilogy. Fun read, fun read). Made of even (2) and odd (3). all hail Eris. Yadda yadda.


• 42 = The answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. End of story.


• 108 = 1^1 * 2^2 * 3^3. Also a cool number. Not to mention it's a sacred number in Hinduism.

Well, other numbers that I'm disappointed not seeing on the list (possibly because it doesn't add up to some cool number) include 5, 11, and my favourite number of all, pi. Prime is very under-represented (Granted, I don't like primes...), and irrational numbers aren't represeted at all! (heh) The again imagine typing pi in every 108 minutes.

Does that neccessarily means the writers have all these in mind, but I wouldn't be surprised if they actually put some thoughts into what numbers to put in. 15 and 16 is a wee bit of a stretch though. Maybe there are some other meanings in 15 and 16 that I don't know of. And what about 3: the holy Trinity in Catholism? You have classic Greek, Tao, Hindu, Discordian, and Douglas Adam-ism even, where is Catholism in all that?

And I like 12. Why not 12? It's highly composite as well as being the number of Zodiac, 12 stations of the cross, yadda yadda. And no perfect number either! (unless you count '6', which is the number of numbers there)

Ah well, I wasted another afternoon...