Playing the numbers game.

• Author: Kreyche, Gerald F.

Numbers are totally a human invention. There is no such thing as zero, for example, yet its concept is one of humankind's greatest achievements. Numbers so prevail today that in many cases they have replaced words in our computerized society.

Number crunchers are in their heyday. Wall Street hourly awaits new economic figures on unemployment, gross national product, rates of inflation, etc., and fortunes rise and fall on those numbers. Actuaries can reel off life expectancies, and insurance companies put their money where their actuaries' mouths are, so certain are they of the predictions. Every day, we read of the numerical chances of women developing breast cancer or men getting prostate cancer.

Time has a regular column, simply entitled "Numbers," that gives various statistics ranging from the amount of crimes committed in a given period and a given age group, the numbers of people infected with the HIV virus, the average pay increase for workers, etc.

For many of us non-mathematicians, numbers have become nauseating, yet one can't argue with their success. Nonetheless, statistics never apply to the individual as such, but only to the group. This reminds me of the statistician who drowned crossing a river that, on average, was just two feet deep.

Sometimes, the word has an ominous meaning, as in the expression, "Your number's up!" Many regard certain numbers superstitiously, especially 13. Some multi-storied hotels even skip the 13th floor, going from 12 to 14. (At the beginning of the year, many worried about 1998, for it contained three Fridays that fall on the 13th of the month.) For years, residents of Colorado and New Mexico have petitioned to have U.S. Highway 666 changed to a different designation. It is a road fraught with accidents, and locals call it the Devil's Highway, from the Biblical reference to 666.

Yet, there are so-called lucky numbers, too. Lottery players persist in betting their lucky numbers, despite constant losses. In the Western world at least, seven often is considered a lucky number and every crap-shooter pleads with the dice to come up with that winning seven. Airplane manufacturers, well-aware that there are many white-knuckled flyers around, make full use of this lucky number. Note the many commercial airplanes numbered 707, 727, 737, 747, and 757.

In the Western world, the number three frequently takes first place in popularity. (Try an experiment before a large group of people, asking them to choose a...