Lucky Numbers
how are they created?
Find your lucky numbers
The first is the lucky numbers of Euler. The second is obtained by writing out all odd numbers: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, .... The first odd number is 3, so strike out every third number from the list: 1, 3, 7, 9, 13, 15, 19, .... The first odd number greater than 3 in the list is 7, so strike out every seventh number: 1, 3, 7, 9, 13, 15, 21, 25, 31, ....
Numbers remaining after this procedure has been carried out completely are called lucky numbers. The first few are 1, 3, 7, 9, 13, 15, 21, 25, 31, 33, 37, ... (Sloane's A000959). Many asymptotic properties of the prime numbers are shared by the lucky numbers. The asymptotic density is , just as the prime number theorem, and the frequency of twin primes and twin lucky numbers are similar. A version of the Goldbach conjecture also seems to hold.
Thinking of winning the lottery?
Lucky numbers for gamblers
If you take a poll of people who play online slots and other casino games, the odds are great that many of them believe in lucky numbers or other rituals they religiously follow every time they gamble. Much of the appeal of gambling is hitting winning streaks when it seems impossible to lose, and in many cases there's no better explanation than it was your lucky night; once you place your bets, buy your lotto ticket, or spin the slots, whether you're a winner or not is completely up to fate.
As far as finding lucky numbers, getting lotto numbers from fortune cookies is one of the most common places where you'll find lucky numbers to use. Some people don't like this method as it's not very personal and seemingly random, but if you believe in the power of messages from fortune cookies there's no reason to ignore the numbers on the back if you're a lotto fan. If luck is simply the way of the universe rewarding you, why not deliver your good luck in a fortune cookie?
Other gamblers look elsewhere for their lucky numbers, with many cultures believing in the power of certain numbers. Western and Japanese cultures have long believed in the power of the number 7 to bring good luck, with the sinister number 13 bringing its own portion of bad fortune. Chinese culture has its own lucky numbers -- including 6, 8, and 9 -- but these are based on the fact that the word for the numbers sounds similar to other positive Chinese words, so it's more a case of good luck by association.
Other people take a more personal approach when it comeIf you take a poll of people who play online slots and other casino games, the odds are great that many of them believe in lucky numbers or other rituals they religiously follow every time they gamble. Much of the appeal of gambling is hitting winning streaks when it seems impossible to lose, and in many cases there's no better explanation than it was your lucky night; once you place your bets, buy your lotto ticket, or spin the slots, whether you're a winner or not is completely up to fate.
As far as finding lucky numbers, getting lotto numbers from fortune cookies is one of the most common places where you'll find lucky numbers to use. Some people don't like this method as it's not very personal and seemingly random, but if you believe in the power of messages from fortune cookies there's no reason to ignore the numbers on the back if you're a lotto fan. If luck is simply the way of the universe rewarding you, why not deliver your good luck in a fortune cookie?
Other gamblers look elsewhere for their lucky numbers, with many cultures believing in the power of certain numbers. Western and Japanese cultures have long believed in the power of the number 7 to bring good luck, with the sinister number 13 bringing its own portion of bad fortune. Chinese culture has its own lucky numbers -- including 6, 8, and 9 -- but these are based on the fact that the word for the numbers sounds similar to other positive Chinese words, so it's more a case of good luck by association.
Other people take a more personal approach when it comes to finding their lucky daily pick 3 numbers, choosing instead to pick their own numbers based on important personal details such as the age of their children, birthdays, and other number-based events. Many will play the same set of numbers they've picked over and over and over, as it lets people personalize the process of picking their numbers and lets them feel like they have at least some small measure of control over their fate.s to finding their lucky daily pick 3 numbers, choosing instead to pick their own numbers based on important personal details such as the age of their children, birthdays, and other number-based events. Many will play the same set of numbers they've picked over and over and over, as it lets people personalize the process of picking their numbers and lets them feel like they have at least some small measure of control over their fate.
asian superstition
The belief in the magic of numbers can be found everywhere in Asian cultures. For instance, in the present Chinese culture: people are very superstitious about numbers that are divided into lucky (e.g. 8) and unlucky (e.g. 4) ones. From the date people choose to get married to license plate numbers of cars, the preference to lucky numbers in social life suggests that certain numbers are culturally more valuable than others. Coincidently or not, in Korea, there are also lucky numbers, like 7, which are believed to bring good luck, and bad numbers like 4, which are widely avoided.
2More recently, with the rapid diffusion and penetration of mobile phones in China, the superstitious claims based on numbers have found a hotbed in the new technology. These superstitious claims based on numbers have found another outlet in these new technologies. The enthusiastic embrace of mobile phones and the widespread invocation of lucky mobile phone numbers have become a trendsetting popular culture in China. In 2006, a mobile phone number that ended with the digits 8888, and was enlightened and sanctified by abbots in Shaolin Temple was auctioned for 81,000 Yuan.
3When the mobile phone has become an icon of China’s accelerated twin processes of modernization and globalization, the social craze for lucky mobile phone numbers seem to signal an opposite wave towards rationality, the core ideology of modernity. In this context, it is legitimate to ask: Is the unflinching belief in lucky mobile phone numbers a continuity or renewal of Chinese traditional culture? Is the mysterious ethnoscape a manifestation of sub-cultures against modernization?
4Greatly influenced by Chinese Confucianism, Korea bears cultural proximity to China to certain extent. However, in South Korea, where over half of the entire population use a mobile phone (Kim), the belief in lucky numbers has not so extensively penetrated into the mobile phone market. Thus, South Korea seems to provide a mirror for investigating Chinese society in terms of continuity and changes as far as mobile phone and lucky numbers are concerned.
5This qualitative research tries to explore the socio-cultural roots of the social craze for lucky mobile phone numbers in China. Can such phenomenon be found outside of China in other locations in the region?
6Whilst in Korea on an Asia Cultures Academy fellowship I began to observe some similarities between Chinese and Korean relationships to numbers and superstition. Both countries boast high mobile phone penetration rates and are centres for the manufacturing, production and exporting of global mobile technologies. Both countries, also, demonstrate particular modes of contextualising the mobile device into everyday life. During this Korean fellowship, I was prompted by these observations to conduct a qualitative cross-cultural comparison between individuals in both China and Korea to ascertain what types of rituals and associations could be paralleled. This sample study is not meant to be indicative of all Chinese or Korean experiences but, rather, a meditation on some of the ways in which tradition is used to localise and domesticate mobile technologies.
7In tracing the continuity and changes of the social practice of lucky numbers, I take South Korea, which has a certain cultural proximity to China, as a comparison with China for this study. The findings, which were based on semi-structured interviews with informants from both China and South Korea, suggest that this invented tradition is a consequence of severe social transformation and the rise of consumerism in China. My analysis also reveals that the invented tradition of lucky mobile phone numbers is not a superstition against rationality, but a manifestation of modernity.