This is a strange question about numbers...?

Question

I keep seeing the numbers 1, 10, 11, in all forms in different sequences, whether it be in movies, licence plates, alarm clocks (if I suddenly wake up), grocery store ("miss, your change is $1.11") etc.
Universally, mathematically, spritually, scientifically...whatever it is, please someone tell me why I'm haunted by these numbers.

Answer 1

matahari is right...

People say the same about time: they say "every time I look at my watch its 11:11 or 2:22 or 5:55". If they test the phenomenon properly, ie every time they check the time, write down what it was on a piece of paper, and then check the paper at the end of a few days, they see that those times come up no more frequently than any others.

This is about perception. First, some things are more memorable than other things. you dont remember your watch saying 1:36, but 1:11 is more memorable, so when you see it, you remember it happening before. Second, you brain naturally looks for patterns, and if, one day, purely coincidentally, you did see heaps of 1's 10's and 11's, your brain would have picked up the pattern. Now every time you see them, it confirms the pattern, but your brain doesn't try to disprove the pattern when it sees 43, 12, 192, etc.

relax - this whole thing is just coincidence combined with the processes of perception.

Answer 2

Here's a believable reason. The number 1 should appear more than any other number because it's the lowest counting number. You can't see two horses in a field without seeing the first one as well as the other one.

And if there are just two horses, then you can't see a third, a fourth, or a fifth.

So 2 should occur more often than 3, 4, or 5.

Similarly, a group of 10 or 15 high school students should occur more often than a group of 52 or 63 students.

So small numbers happen more than big numbers. That's why you see more 1's than anything else.

This extends to giving change; you will pay the smallest amount greater than your bill. If you bought something for $3.42, you'll tender either four singles or a $5 bill. Either one minimizes your change. And as soon as you minimize, you'll see more 1's.

License plates. They distribute the "1 series" before the "2 series", and so on.

Answer 3

This is a relatively common phenomenon and is a result of the human brain trying to make sense of patterns that it sees. Bob D mentioned Benfords law, however I don't think that is the reason you are seeing these numbers (though it is interesting that the 3 numbers you find interesting start with 1). The main reason you see these numbers is because you are looking for them.

There is a movie "Pi" where the protagonist experiences this phenomenon. Given that you are haunted by these numbers, the movie would probably disturb you.

Answer 4

Perhaps you've been spending too much time on the computer? Computer codes consist of sequences of the numbers 1 and 0. Everything you type actually ends up in this form. Maybe the universe is telling you to get off the computer and get outside more!

Answer 5

could be a case of a computer programmer's obsession towards these figures. chances are you're encountering numbers of all sorts but been paying more attention unconsciously or otherwise to these numbers. make a note of all figures you get to see on an hourly basis, then count all 1's, 10's and 11's together (pls. exclude these from the count). get the proportion of your total to the total of all numbers encountered. Maybe, if you get something between 50 to 100 percent you opt to start buying all lottery tickets carrying numbers 1, 10 and 11 (pls. exclude these from the count).

Answer 6

This is a product of Benford's law, where the leading digit of a number is not 1/9, the number 1 will be the leading digit about 30% of the time.

Answer 7

You usually recognize a pattern more and more once you are conscious of it. This is random analogy but I remember when I was very young and my parents bought a new car and all of a sudden I kept seeing that same kind of car everywhere. i thought that there was a huge over popultaion of that car, but then I realized it was just because now we had that type of car, I noticed it whereas before I never had. Most likely you encountered those numbers a few times in the same time period, and now that you have thought about it, you see them everywhere.

Answer 8

buy a lotto ticket. lots of 1, 10, 11 #s

Answer 9

Your psyche is operating in machine code, like a computer.

Answer 10

Take the red pill to find out.