47 (number)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cardinal 47
forty-seven
Ordinal 47th
forty-seventh
Factorization prime
Divisors 1, 47
Roman numeral XLVII
Binary 00101111
Hexadecimal 2F

47 (forty-seven) is the natural number following 46 and preceding 48.

Contents

[edit] In mathematics

Forty-seven is the 15th prime number, a safe prime, the 13th supersingular prime, and the 6th Lucas prime. 47 is a highly cototient number. It is an Eisenstein prime with no imaginary part and real part of the form 3n − 1.

It is also a Keith number, because it recurs in a Fibonacci-like sequence started from its base 10 digits: 4, 7, 11, 18, 29, 47...

47 is a strictly non-palindromic number.

Its representation in binary being 00101111, 47 is a prime Thabit number, and as such is related to the pair of amicable numbers {17296, 18416}.

47 is a Carol number.

[edit] In science

[edit] Astronomy

[edit] In pop culture

There exists a 47 society,[4] an outgrowth of a movement started at Pomona College, California, USA, which propagates the belief (or, to some, the inside joke) that the number forty-seven occurs in nature with noticeably higher frequency than other natural numbers, that it is the quintessential random number.[5] The origin of 47 lore at Pomona appears to be a mathematical proof, written in 1964 by Professor Donald Bentley, which supposedly demonstrated that all numbers are equal to 47. However, the proof mentioned above was used by Professor Bentley as a "joke proof" to introduce his students to the concept of mathematical proofs, and is not mathematically valid.[6]

Joe Menosky, who graduated from Pomona College in 1979 and went on to become one of the story writers of Star Trek: The Next Generation, "infected" other Star Trek writers with it. As a result the number 47, its reverse of 74, or a multiple of 47 occurs in some way or other in almost every episode of this program and its spin-offs Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise. The number might be mentioned in the dialogue, appear on a computer screen a character is looking at, or be a substring of a larger number. Some examples are listed here:

  • In Star Trek Generations, Scotty only manages to beam up 47 El-Aurians before their ship is destroyed by the nexus
  • In the TNG episode "Darmok," Worf reports a particle gradient of 4/7.
  • In the DS9 episode "Whispers," the planet Parada 4 has seven moons.
  • In the Voyager episode "Non Sequitur," Harry Kim lives in apartment 4-G, G being the seventh letter of the alphabet and he Tom transport to Harry's office on level 6 subsection 47. The intentionality of this reference to 47 was confirmed by Brannon Braga, the writer of that episode.[7]

From Star Trek, the 47 was carried on into modern pop culture and nowadays appears frequently in motion pictures, television shows and in music, contributing to the 47 society belief/myth.


47 in motion pictures

  • In the movie Hitman (2007), the main character is known only as Agent 47 (Timothy Olyphant)(though this is based on the game character).
  • In the movie Lucky Number Slevin (2007), Nick Fisher's apartment (the one Josh Hartnett sleeps in) is Apartment 47.
  • In David Lynch's movie Inland Empire (2006), Laura Dern eventually reaches a door with the number 47 on it. Also, the old Polish movie (that On High In Blue Tomorrows remakes) has "4" and "7" in its name.
  • The tale of the 47 Ronin is a historical Japanese story, based upon actual events that took place in year 1701 of the western calendar. It is mentioned in John Frankenheimers movie Ronin (1998).
  • In the motion picture, The Sum of All Fears (2002), a nuclear arm is sold for 47 million $US. The moment the bomb detonates '4007' is said [by a doctor in a hospital].
  • In Matt Reeves' movie Cloverfield (2008), the area where the tape is found is called Area 447. Also, when the main characters are looking for Beth McIntyre in her apartment, they pass apartment 47. These are possible references to the recurrence of 47 in the TV series Alias (see below), both of which were produced by JJ Abrams.

47 in Television Shows

  • The Sky One programme Brainiac had a short segment entitled '47 second science'.
  • In manga Claymore, there are 47 warriors in the Organization, as well as the main character being Rank 47
  • In the TV series Scrubs, the number of the apartment JD moves out to from Turk's apartment is also #47.
  • In various episodes of the television series Alias and Lost the number 47 makes an appearance. In Alias, the number 47 is central to the plot as it had significance in the work of Rambaldi.


47 in Music

  • Black 47, an Irish-American rock band
  • 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?"
  • Leslie Sarony published his song "Forty-Seven Ginger-Headed Sailors" in 1928.[8]
  • 47 is the usual number strings of a pedal harp
  • 47 is a song by Sunny Day Real Estate
  • 47 appears in the lyrics of track number five "Run run run" on The Velvet Underground's "The Velvet Underground & Nico."
  • On the front cover of the Koxbox record "The great unknown" you can find the number 47 following three dots in the lower leftside corner.
  • 47 appears in the lyrics to the John Vanderslice song "Trance Manual" from the album Pixel Revolt.
  • "Object 47" (named as the 47th release in the discography) will be the 11th album release from Wire. A preview of the cover may be found on their website pinkflag.com


Other 47 references

  • In the web-comic Comedity, Personality 47, aka "The Red Right Hand," is the source of Garth's aggression and gaming skills.
  • The popular video-game series Hitman and subsequent feature film features a main character known only as Agent 47, a reference to the barcode tattooed on the back of his head.

[edit] In sports

47 is:

Lawrence Tynes kicked a 47 yard field goal in over time after missing two shorter kicks to send the NY Giants to the 2008 Super Bowl

  • Jesse Orosco, who threw the final pitch for the Mets 1986 World Series victory over the Boston Red Sox had jersey #47

In Religion (according to Wikipedia) Jesus performed 47 miracles that were documented

[edit] Calendar years

[edit] Other

  • Telephone dialing country code for Norway
  • The AK-47, also known as a Kalashnikov rifle, is one of the most widely-used military weapons.

[edit] References

  1. ^ The NGC / IC Project - Home of the Historically Corrected New General Catalogue (HCNGC) since 1993
  2. ^ http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEsaros/SEsaros1-175.html
  3. ^ NASA - Lunar Eclipses of Saros Series 1 to 175
  4. ^ THE 47 SOCIETY
  5. ^ The Mystery of 47. Pomona College. Retrieved on 2007-08-29.
  6. ^ Yahoo! Groups
  7. ^ schlock.net: A letter from Brannon Braga
  8. ^ Digital Collections - Music - Sarony, Leslie. Forty-seven ginger-headed sailors [music]

[edit] External links

[edit] Extras

The second series of 3-D MAN started with #47.