5 ms·
I've confirmed this experimentally. (As in, I asked a bunch of people to "pick a number from 1 to 10"). But that was a long time ago, and I wonder if the commo
by function_seven 5y ago
I've confirmed this experimentally. (As in, I asked a bunch of people to "pick a number from 1 to 10").
But that was a long time ago, and I wonder if the common knowledge that '7' is the most popular would sway people to avoid it. I know I do. I should re-run this.
In any case, it's clear that 7 is the most random digit, right? The other digits are either even or otherwise "nice". 7 is chaotic and unpredictable. 7 sells loose cigarettes to middle school kids. 7 will leave the shopping cart in the middle of the parking lot. Of all the digits in [1-10], it's 7 who'll more likely than not be the one who left the bathroom stall without flushing.
- irrational 5y agoIt's easy to draw a shape with 3 (triangle), 4 (square), 5 (pentagon or star shape), 6 (2 overlapping triangles), 8 (2 overlapping squares), 9 (3 overlapping triangles), and 10 (2 overlapping pentagons) sides; but a seven sided shape? Screw that.
- function_seven 5y agoYou just reminded me of something from when I worked at a pizza place. Most of the time we sold pizzas cut the normal way. Either 6, 8, or 10 slices using a circular cutter. The normal style you might have in your kitchen. But one Wednesday each month, we had a massive lunch order for a local school. Hundreds of individually-boxed slices, delivered just before 11:30. The slice box was sized for a 1/7 slice of our extra large pizza. We had to use a "wagon wheel" type slicer for those. It was a huge stainless thing that must've cost a fortune. I always wondered why it was 7 slices and not 6 or 8. The best theory I could come up with was that these slices all had to be the exact same size; no variance from sloppy cutting. And the only way to ensure that would be to specify it as an odd number to make it impractical for the normal cutter.
- jimmygrapes 5y agoDid you have to use a different cheese as well? My brief stint in the field had us dragging out school district special cheese and a wagon wheel cutter as well (although it was 8 pieces). I can only assume that you're correct about strict tolerances in slice size. My. imagination creates a scenario where somebody got a small slice once and somebody overzealously mandated more equality.
- function_seven 5y agoI don't think so. I was a delivery driver and so was also responsible for pulling the pizzas off the end of the oven conveyor, slicing them, and boxing them, so I can't be sure if some special government cheese was used in the prep line. But my memory of the pizzas was that they were the same, just sliced different.
- tobr 5y agoA pentagon is one of the hardest things to draw well.
- irrational 5y agoDraw a five pointed triangle (use the golden ratio if you can't do it by hand) and then connect the points. Pentagon!
- dkersten 5y ago> five pointed triangle :-)
- irrational 5y agoOh, right. In my mind a 5 pointed star is made up of 5 triangles, each in a 1.618 ratio, so I mixed up star and triangle in my mind.
- derrasterpunkt 5y agoYour username fits you well, sir.
- sorokod 5y agoWhen asked to "pick a number" or "pick a random number" why should people avoid the popular 7 or 17 ? What property you are expecting them to hit when you ask this question? Also: why was six afraid of seven? because seven ate nine
- function_seven 5y agoWell when someone is asking me for a random digit, the last thing I want to be is predictable! To avoid the shame and embarrassment of being basic, I go with 2. Or maybe 9. Depends on my mood.
- sorokod 5y agoMaybe if you ask for an unpredictable number, you might get different answers.
- quinndexter 5y agoSeven ate nine because it needs it's three squared meals a day.
- noobly 5y agoI guess there's more to the story of why 6 is afraid of 7..