# notes --- - [[03 - NOTES/00 - FLEETING/the blue seven phenomenon]] - [[2024-03-30 thirty-seven heaven]] - [[2024-03-30-13-45 odd number people vs even number people]] # summary --- Veritasium surveyed over 200,000 people asking them to choose a random number between 1-100 *and* what number they thought would be guessed the most by other people. Mapping out responses, the distribution of answers stays surprisingly even from 1,000 responses to 200,000. The way people choose “random” numbers is not very random at all. When getting rid of outliers (like 42 and 69), the most popular numbers were 7, 71, 77, and 37. In terms of what number respondents thought *others* would pick (also without outliers), the most popular guesses were 73 and 37, which were almost tired. Overall, the most picked numbers were 73 and 37. 3 and 7 were the most selected digits on both questions. Prime numbers feel more random to us! But 37 actually shows up in some pretty interesting areas of our lives. Tom Magliery started collecting some 37 facts on [thirty-seven.org](http://thirty-seven.org/) ([[2024-03-30 thirty-seven heaven]]), like: - "Normal" human body temperature is 37 degrees Celsius. - There are 37 genes in the mitochondrial genome. - There are 37 bars in the digits of a digital watch. This whole thing is amazing. I love odd numbers. I love prime numbers. I love weird obsessive collections of facts. I love when people’s brains connect on something random. Love it.