The Numbers

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4 8 15 16 23 42

During the second season of LOST it was revealed that the numbers are the code that must be entered into the computer located inside The Swan every 108 minutes (By the way 4 + 8 + 15 + 16 + 23 + 42 = 108). Entering the numbers resets the countdown timer to 108 minutes.

Bunker Hieroglyphs

If an individual does not push the button in time, the numbers flip to a series of glyphs. While the numeric sequence is flipping into these icons, an individual can still finish typing in the numbers, press execute, and return the counter to 108 minutes. The crew in The Swan were supposed to be replaced every 540 days (108 x 5), which means that each crew will enter the numbers at least 7200 times.

It has been revealed in the Lost Experience that these six numbers are the core values of the Valenzetti Equation, a mathematical formula designed to predict the end of humanity. The purpose of the DHARMA Initiative is to change the factors leading to humanity's demise, which will be indicated by an alteration in at least one of these numbers. However, the DHARMA Initiative still, supposedly to this day, do not know exactly what the numbers mean.

Trivia

Damon Lindelof did make a comment at Comic Con in 2005 that "We may never know what the Numbers mean". He quickly regreted this, as he got tons of unhappy fan mail demanding to know what he meant exactly, and since then, the writing team have declined to comment directly or expand on this topic (except through The Lost Experience).

Important Religious References

The mysterious project the hatch was built for is called "The DHARMA Initiative". The word "Dharma" means "moral duty", and the number 108 is very important in Buddhist and Hindu mythology; Namaste and many other recurring themes also follow from the same religious traditions. To many Buddhists, there are 108 sins (or "defilements") of mankind. It is for this reason that New Year's celebrations, such as those in Japan, feature ringing a bell 108 times as well as one possible reason most Buddhist prayer beads (mala) have 108 individual beads. Gods in Hinduism are said to each have 108 names.

Mathematical Facts

Sum: 4 + 8 + 15 + 16 + 23 + 42 = 108
Product:4 * 8 * 15 * 16 * 23 * 42 = 7418880

The numbers can be generated via a process involving the "Shaw-Basho polynomial". (While it should receive high marks for creativity, the "Shaw-Basho" polynomial is clearly a retrofit, in that it was designed with the foreknowledge of the desired result. Given any six integers, a polynomial of the format used in the Shaw-Basho polynomial can be derived that would "generate" those same numbers when the expressed procedure is followed. For example, if I wanted to "magically" derive the numbers '3, 9, 10, 14, 27, 50', I would use the same exact process but with a polynomial that had the following coefficient substitutions: 50 for 42; -365 for -305; 1220 for 1100; -1255 for -895; 1430 for 1018; and 360 for 480. Try it.)

Appearances

Hurley's winning lotto ticket.

All numbers together

In Lost

Danielle's notes contained the numbers written 7 times, along with a mathematical formula (Numbers)
Spoken by Leonard in the mental hospital; he originally heard them with Sam Toomey when they were in the Navy together in the Pacific (Numbers)
Winning lottery numbers used by Hurley (Numbers)
A transmission of the numbers led Danielle to the island (Numbers)
When Hurley's car broke down they showed the speedometer (in km/h) go from 16 to 15 to 8 to 4. The dashboard also displayed a temperature of 23 degrees Celsius and 42 km on the odometer. (Exodus)
When Hurley rides past 6 players of a girls' soccer team in the airport, each uniform has one of the numbers (Exodus)
On the entrance hatch to the Swan (Exodus)
Entered into the Hatch computer (Adrift)
On the medicine that Desmond injects into his arm (Orientation
On the vial that Claire was injected with in the Medical Station (Maternity Leave)
On the Blast Door in the Swan (Lockdown)
LAPD police car numbers (Two for the Road)

In The Lost Experience

On Thehansofoundation.org if you go to a nonexisting type like this link, the numbers on the loading screen are 4 8 15 16 23 42 and 64.
In the early introduction of Sublymonal.com, 6 blank television screens were seen rotating. They had to be clicked 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 times, respectively, to get a clue.
One of Rachel Blake's Copenhagen post clues points us to 43 Things, where the words to goals #4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42 were the only entries that contained just one word. Together, these words: "truth safe reckon copenhagen alvar sumo" formed a secret code that needed to be entered in as a string at Sublymonal.com.
They are the "core environmental and human factors" of the Valenzetti Equation, according to the Sri Lanka video.
In a Thehansofoundation.org hack, a computer at the Vik Institute displaying the hieroglyphics was shown. After sequence #4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42, each step gave a part of the clue, which ended up solving the DHARMA acronym.

Single Numbers

Each number has its own article with more detailed information on where it appears in the show (and outside the show):

4 8 15 16 23 42

Ex: Flight 815 Seat Numbers

23A - Jack
23D - Rose
23E - Bernard
42F - Ana-Lucia

Combos

The Manifest (warning: this image is flagged as non-canon)

4 8 plane crash surviors. (Pilot)
The safety deposit box that contained Kate's toy plane was box #8 15 (Whatever the Case May Be).
Charlie attempts to sell a copier named the Heatherton C8 15 (Homecoming).
Drive Shaft is 23 4 on the juke box. (Homecoming)
Locke directs his mother to aisles 8 and 15 in the toy store, before he realizes who she is (Deus Ex Machina).
The reel number of the intelligence tape Sayid saw was 23 108-42 (The Greater Good)
Shannon's father died in the hospital at 8:15 (Man of Science, Man of Faith).
There were 23 survivors in the tail section. 15 died or were taken by The Others, which means 8 were left (The Other 48 Days).
Anthony Cooper's safety deposit box was #15 16 (Lockdown).
The Blast Door map in the same episode features the expression "√16. √64. √225" beneath The Flame which evaluates to 4, 8, and 15 (Lockdown)
Hurley's psychiatrist says that were 23 people on the collapsed deck, that was made for 8 (15 over the maximum, add Hurley, and it's 16) (Dave).
The system failure that caused the crash occured at 4:16 (?).
Jae Lee's hotel room number is 15 16 (The Glass Ballerina).

Apophenia in Arithmetic

If you start adding and subtracting the numbers you can make up almost any theory that you want (apophenia in action). For example;

Boone's accident is in episode 19 (42-23)
Boone dies in the 20th episode (16+4); Claire's Baby is born in the same episode

This is why using arithmetic in deciding if a number counts as a reference is a somewhat pointless exercise, with two notable exceptions;

108 (the sum of the numbers; referenced above in detail), and
7418880 (the product of the numbers, which appeared on the computer screen at the listening station before the discharge).

Here, the arithmetic is straightforward, and therefore can be construed as intentional, and beyond coincidence. This follows a general rule laid out by Occam's razor of avoiding needless complexity in order to force connections which do not really exist.

Interesting tidbit on the numbers as written on Danielle's papers.

Numbers written by Danielle

4 8 15 16 23 42
4 8 15 16 23 42
4 8 15 16 23 42
4 8 15 16 23 42
4 8 15 16 23 42
4 8 15 16 23 42
4 8 15 16 23 42

8 is 8th number counting in standard reading format; that is, starting at the top, reading a line left-to-right, then moving to the next line beneath. 15 is 15th, 16 is 16th, 23 is 23rd and 42 is 42nd. If only the 4 was a 1 or 7 this would work with all the numbers.

Occurrences outside of the show

As there is no reference to the sequence in The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences, it is highly unlikely that the numbers have any real-world mathematical or scientific significance.

At least some of the numbers are well known as special numbers even before this show. It is likely that at least some of them were used in the show for that reason:

One of the producers might be a Commodore 64 fan. If you turn the numbers into a Commodore 64 sprite then you get a man sitting with a computer and pressing the numbers ?. Look here for image and the math behind it.
08/15 is a german saying for "ordinary" or "boring", also used as a placeholder on demonstration objects
08/15 was the model number of the German standard rifle during WW I
4, 8, 16 are binary numbers with only one "1" (and are thus powers of two).
23 is in several conspiracy theories the number of the "Illuminati" (see also Mindfuck). It is claimed to appear all over history.
4 is a very unlucky number in Korea. Its pronunciation is similar to the pronunciation of the Chinese character for Death. Typically, elevators are marked "F" instead of "4".
8/15 is Independence Day in Korea. South Korea even has a national soft drink called "815 Soda," or "Pal Ship Oh Cola" as it is better known locally.
42 is of course the famous "answer to life, the universe and everything" from the book "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". Even google tells you that, if you enter "answer to life, the universe and everything" as a search term.
FIFA Soccer World Cup '06 started just at 16:23 of 06-09-2006 (6+9+2+6=23)

A reference to some of the numbers is made in other shows or movies, some of them predating "Lost" (see Allusions to Lost for more):

Fox Mulder from "X-Files" (1993-1998) has one of them as an apartment number and 23 and 42 appear throughout the show.
"Alias" also makes use of the numbers on some occasions, which is notable because Alias and Lost are both made by Abrams.
The numbers also make an appearance in "Veronica Mars", at the end of the episode "Donut Run" (2x11 - January 2006), on a fortune cookie that Duncan gives to Veronica. "Veronica Mars" airs on UPN in the same time slot as Lost.
There is a German movie called "23" (1998) (more info on IMDB)
All the numbers are retired Yankee jersey numbers. (Note: While Jersey 42 was not retired specifically by the Yankees, 42 was retired across the league on April 15, 1997 to honor Jackie Robinson.) The other numbers: 4 - Lou Gehrig, 8 - Yogi Berra and Bill Dickey, 15 - Thurman Munson, 16 - Whitey Ford, 23 - Don Mattingly. Of special note is Munson, who died in a plane crash. And despite the baseball-wide retirement of 42 for Robinson, the Yankees' star closing pitcher, Mariano Rivera, continues to wear 42 under a grandfather clause because he was using it before 1997.
In the movie "Saw II", the numbers 8 and 16 were part of the Mindfuck Game: They were part of the combination to a safe that supposedly held an antidote for the poisoned "players".
On the cover of an issue of the comic "Catwoman", there is a drawing of Catwoman's mug shot. Her ID number is 4815162342.
In the "Ultimate Wolverine vs Hulk" comic book, written by Damon Lindelof, the number of people Hulk killed in a previous rampage is recounted to be 815, instead of 'around 800'.
In the "Tripping the Rift" episode "Six, Lies and Videotape", 4-8-15-16-23-42 is Chodes' customer number at the post office.

Natural occurrences:

Not found in the first 200,000,000 digits of pi. Interestingly, 4815162343 can be found at the 176,025,488th position of pi.
Latitude 4.815, Longitude 162.342 are the GPS coordinates that lead to a point in the Pacific Ocean on the trail from Australia to L.A. (see Mapquest: [1])

External links

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