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References to 47
There exists a humorous 47 society at Pomona College, California, USA which propagates the (joking) belief that the number forty-seven occurs in nature with noticeably higher frequency than other natural numbers. 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.
Following on from this inside joke, 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, and as a result the number 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, it might appear on a computer screen a character is looking at, and it might be a substring of a larger number. The number also appears on some of the DVD menu screens for the episodes. They range from extremely obvious (for example, "shields are down to 47%"), to very well hidden. Some examples are listed here:
Voyager's registration number is NCC-74656, and warp factor 7 is 656 times the speed of light; substituting the 7 in for 656 would thus yield NCC-747.
In one episode of Voyager, a character refers to an event that happened on Earth in the year 2209, which is 47 squared.
In "Non Sequitur", an episode of that series, Harry Kim lives in apartment 4-G, G being the seventh letter of the alphabet. The intentionality of this reference to 47 was confirmed by Brannon Braga, the writer of that episode [1].
According to a joke by Rick Berman (the co-creator and executive producer of several Star Trek series), "47 is 42, corrected for inflation".
Eventually it spread outside of Star Trek; 47s have been spotted in The Simpsons, Law & Order, NYPD Blue, Alias and Lost.
47 also has been placed in video games in the same deliberate way for almost 20 years. Examples include Earl Weaver Baseball (the batter's uniform number is 47) and Hitman (the name of the main character is 47).
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?"
Forty-seven is also:
the number of miracles performed by Jesus listed in the New Testament
the code for international direct dial phone calls to Norway.
the model number of the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt WWII fighter bomber
the number of the French département Lot-et-Garonne.
the number of mountains in "the 47" High Peaks of the Adirondacks.
the number of samurai involved in the famous historical Ako vendetta; sometimes referred to as the 47 Ronin.
the number of bullets that killed Pancho Villa in 1923.
the model number of the AK-47 assault rifle.
the year AD 47, 47 BC, and 1947.
There exists a humorous 47 society at Pomona College, California, USA which propagates the (joking) belief that the number forty-seven occurs in nature with noticeably higher frequency than other natural numbers. 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.
Following on from this inside joke, 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, and as a result the number 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, it might appear on a computer screen a character is looking at, and it might be a substring of a larger number. The number also appears on some of the DVD menu screens for the episodes. They range from extremely obvious (for example, "shields are down to 47%"), to very well hidden. Some examples are listed here:
Voyager's registration number is NCC-74656, and warp factor 7 is 656 times the speed of light; substituting the 7 in for 656 would thus yield NCC-747.
In one episode of Voyager, a character refers to an event that happened on Earth in the year 2209, which is 47 squared.
In "Non Sequitur", an episode of that series, Harry Kim lives in apartment 4-G, G being the seventh letter of the alphabet. The intentionality of this reference to 47 was confirmed by Brannon Braga, the writer of that episode [1].
According to a joke by Rick Berman (the co-creator and executive producer of several Star Trek series), "47 is 42, corrected for inflation".
Eventually it spread outside of Star Trek; 47s have been spotted in The Simpsons, Law & Order, NYPD Blue, Alias and Lost.
47 also has been placed in video games in the same deliberate way for almost 20 years. Examples include Earl Weaver Baseball (the batter's uniform number is 47) and Hitman (the name of the main character is 47).
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?"
Forty-seven is also:
the number of miracles performed by Jesus listed in the New Testament
the code for international direct dial phone calls to Norway.
the model number of the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt WWII fighter bomber
the number of the French département Lot-et-Garonne.
the number of mountains in "the 47" High Peaks of the Adirondacks.
the number of samurai involved in the famous historical Ako vendetta; sometimes referred to as the 47 Ronin.
the number of bullets that killed Pancho Villa in 1923.
the model number of the AK-47 assault rifle.
the year AD 47, 47 BC, and 1947.