this video was made possible by
brilliant learn complex topics simply
for 20
off by being one of the first 200 people
to sign up at brilliant.org
real life lore math and numbers can be
scary but some numbers are more scary
than others to a lot of people recently
i got kind of bored and decided to look
into creating
a single number or sequence of numbers
that the most people around the world
would be uncomfortable with or just not
like
different cultures around the world
consider different numbers to be
terrifying for different reasons
so whatever frighteningly unlucky number
we create
needs to be maximized on cultural fears
across the world
13 is a spooky number in the west 17 is
scary in italy
four is frightening across east asia 39
is
terrifying in afghanistan and 666
is spooky pretty much across the world
so
the number that you saw in the thumbnail
of this video is based on all of these
ones but the big question
is why are these numbers considered
abjectly terrifying to some
but are completely harmless to others
what makes the most cursed number
sequence in the world
so well cursed let's begin with
four and continue up from there in
numerical order
four is a number that strikes terror in
the hearts of
many across china korea japan malaysia
and singapore
the reason why is fairly simple but you
have to understand the chinese korean
and japanese languages
in order to really get it in mandarin
chinese the word for the number four
is the word for the concept of dead or
death
is almost identically pronounced as su
and so
it's very easy while speaking chinese to
accidentally speak the phrase
death while you're attempting to speak
the number four the taboo is present in
both malaysia and singapore as well
because of the modern large chinese
populations in both countries
and the reason is the same in both the
korean and japanese languages as well
for both words sounding almost identical
or at the very least
highly similar so because of this the
number four has been fairly taboo
in chinese and east asian culture for
centuries now
mentioning the number four around a sick
relative or in a hospital is
particularly avoided
gifts in groups of four are sometimes
unwelcome elevators and apartment
buildings will often skip the fourth
floor and go directly from floor 3 to
floor
5. in hong kong some apartment buildings
skip
all the floors from 40 to 49 in order to
skip
all of the 40s although this is more
likely to advertise a building with a
higher floor count than from
any fears of the supernatural in
cantonese chinese
14 and 24 are often considered to be
even worse than the base 4
because translated 14 sounds more akin
to will
certainly die while 24 sounds more like
easy to die in many chinese
neighborhoods there is a noticeable real
estate price drop on properties with the
number four
at the beginning or the end of their
addresses neighborhoods have removed
four from their street names and become
more profitable as a result
but perhaps the most extreme example for
fear of the number four
in chinese culture comes from the 2008
olympic games that were hosted in
beijing
eight years previously in 2000 beijing
bid to host the games then
and lost but they declined to apply to
host the next games in 2004
and opted instead to wait around to
apply again
in 2008. part of the speculation for why
they did this
was out of the cultural fear and
apprehension surrounding the number four
inside of china but of course there's
other numbers that are equally
feared in other parts of the world as
well let's move on to 13 which is
generally more feared in the western
world and particularly
in anglo-saxon or english-speaking
countries there's a lot of theories for
how 13
came to be so infamous in the west like
the judas theory which suggests that the
disciple judas was the last man to sit
with christ
at the last supper therefore being the
13th member at the table
and the one who ultimately betrayed
jesus to the romans
on friday the 13th in october of 1307
king philip iv of france infamously
ordered the arrests of the knights
templar
so for whatever reason the number 13 and
especially friday the 13th is considered
so
unfortunate in the west that an
estimated 17 to 21
million americans suffer from legitimate
fears about the date
but before you denounce these millions
of americans for believing in pure
superstition
consider the events surrounding apollo
13.
the third manned mission to the moon it
was launched on april 11
1970 at 1313 and two days later on april
the 13th
suffered a catastrophic oxygen tank
explosion on board
that forced the mission to abort and
return back to earth
but 13 isn't the only number in the
teens with a lot of infamy there's also
17 which is primarily feared in italy
there's a long history of hatred for the
number 17
here in ancient times the followers of
pythagoras in southern italy
hated the number because it was located
right between 16
and 18. perfect representations of 4x4
and 3x6 quadrilaterals
pythagoras followers also supposedly
murdered a guy
for showing the world that the square
root of 2 was an irrational number but
back to more about 17
in the old testament of the bible it is
recorded that the universal flood that
swept the world began
on the 17th day of the second month the
term
vexi latin for i lived was a common
inscription on tombstones of the
deceased
however vix-i is also an anagram
for x-v-i-i which is 17
in roman numerals which led to an
association of the number with the dead
at the battle of tudiburg forest
in the year 9 ce the german tribes
annihilated the roman's 17th
18th and 19th legions from then on
17 was never used by the romans again to
ever denote
another legion friday the 17th is often
considered more unlucky in italy than
the 13th
and there are some alitalia flights
which have removed the 17th row of seats
on board their planes
moving up in the curse numbers we arrive
on 39 which is particularly seen as bad
luck in afghanistan
without clear origins for why 39 has
somehow become
lodged in the popular afghan imagination
as a symbol of pimping and prostitution
it's said to have initially become
infamous as a result of a well-known
pimp in the city of herat who became
known as
39 because of the registration number on
his expensive car
and the address of his apartment in the
pashtun language
saying the number 39 is also similar
sounding to
dead cow which is a well-known slang
term in the country for a pimp
whatever the origins 39 is such a
problem in the country that vehicles
bearing the number in their registration
plates
are so massively undesirable that
they're almost
impossible to sell 2011 was a
particularly problematic year because
after the persian new year in march
according to the iranian calendar the
year was now 1390
so the afghan government began issuing
registration plates
beginning with 39 and as a result
many drivers simply just refuse to
register their vehicles that year and
risk financial penalties rather than
risk the stigma of driving around in a
vehicle with 39 on it
during the 2010 afghan parliamentary
elections one candidate had the
misfortune of being listed 39th on the
ballot and upon being harassed about it
in the streets
had his guards open fire into the crowd
which killed
two people but the next and final big
curse number
is of course
666 the devil's number supposedly
the numbers infamy originates in the
bible book of revelations chapter 13
verse 18 which states in the king james
version of the bible
here is wisdom let him that hath
understanding count the number of the
beast
for it is the number of a man and his
number
is six six six much has been made about
this phrase throughout history with many
people associating the number with the
devil or the antichrist
a good competitor for my most cursed
number is another number that was
created by mathematician harvey dubner
which reads
as one zero zero zero zero
zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero
zero six six six zero zero
zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero
zero zero zero one the number is known
as
belfagore's prime and contains numerous
superstitious elements the number 666 at
the heart of the prime
is of course the well-known symbol of
the beast the number is then surrounded
on either side
by 13 zeros and it's all 31 total digits
in length which reads as
13 backwards other numbers may be
considered scary to different countries
and peoples as well
in china the numbers 89 6 and 4
are each banned search terms on chinese
search engines because of the date
1989 0604 the date of the tiananmen
square massacre in beijing
with all of these numbers and their
infamies now explained let's then create
the most cursed number with the most
widespread hate and censorship across
the world
in my opinion i think this number
sequence has to be 89
6 4 13 17 39
666 and 4 again maybe followed up by the
square root of 2
just for good measure for the
pythagoreans and there you go
but numbers don't have to be so
frightening numbers
and mathematics in general can be
intimidating and seem like too much to
handle believe me i know
but brilliant can seriously help you out
when i was still in school i struggled a
lot with
every stem subject because it was
difficult for me to pay attention in
class or to understand what
my teachers were trying to tell me but
brilliant continues to help me
understand
more complicated subjects than i ever
could have imagined back then
even if you're an absolute beginner you
can start out with classes like
mathematical fundamentals
or pre-algebra and build your knowledge
base up from there to more advanced
subjects later
like 3d geometry or calculus brilliant
breaks down complicated subjects like
these into easy to follow
bite-sized chunks that'll engage you
with interactive challenges
clear steps storytelling and problems to
solve and if learning about pure
math isn't really your thing then you
can still learn how to do a whole bunch
of other things
like how to build a solar panel how to
build a neural network or even just
getting started with coding or computer
science
you can even do all of this on the go in
small chunks with their mobile app
or if you're tight for time you can
complete their daily challenges to learn
a little bit new every day
in your small free moments whatever stem
subject you're interested in or may be
struggling with and regardless of your
experience level there's something for
you on brilliant so please be sure to go
check them out and sign up for free
and if you're one of the first 200
people who go to brilliant.org
real life lore or click the link in my
description you'll get 20
off of your annual premium subscription
and as always thank you for watching