Why is it always Seven?

Hugomack

Hugomack

Experienced
Why not thirteen guitarists who you hate - which would allow us all to rant on about another six (assuming my arithmetic is correct). How about the three you worship maybe? Or the four you respect the most? Or the One you'd like to drown personally?

Or in honour of waiting for FW10 (has it dropped yet?), the Ten of anything for which you are prepared to wait indefinitely?
 
Seven deadly sins
Seven ways to win
Seven holy paths to hell... And your trip begins
Seven downward slopes
Seven bloodied hopes
Seven are your burning fires,
Seven your desires...
 
Psychological predisposition to the number due to its placement in the 1 to 10 field, and its 'primeness'.

Can't get into it, but if you want to make a few bucks on the law of averages. Write the number '7' in the palm of your hand, walk around a restaurant, bar, public area, and bet people whatever sum of money that if you ask them a question, you'll have the answer written on our hand. They typically agree; you're to speak quickly (as this relies a great deal on neuropathic/logic reflex) asking "what's a number between 1 to 10"??

Statistically, upwards of 80% will say '7' on their first, quick response (actual average variance is 60% to 90% depending on the test groups historically used, but the mean is right around 80%).

This may fall under the "who gives a shit" category. Or it may fall under the "no shit??" category.

Your call.
 
Seven seems to be linked to our cognitive processing - it is a number of significance in way too many unrelated cultures for there to not be some neurological basis. (It's significant in the Bible, Hinduism, Buddhism, Chinese and Japanese mythology, several of the indigenous cultures of Australia, North America and South America, to name but a few).

What that neurological basis actually is though is not clear. There was a famous paper published in the 1950s (The Magical Number Seven) which claimed it was the limit of "working memory", however this study has since been discredited.
 
Manning said:
Seven seems to be linked to our cognitive processing - it is a number of significance in way too many unrelated cultures for there to not be some neurological basis. (It's significant in the Bible, Hinduism, Buddhism, Chinese and Japanese mythology, several of the indigenous cultures of Australia, North America and South America, to name but a few).

What that neurological basis actually is though is not clear. There was a famous paper published in the 1950s (The Magical Number Seven) which claimed it was the limit of "working memory", however this study has since been discredited.
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In many (but interestingly, not all) human societies, 7 is the largest number that can be easily transferred from short-term to long-term memory. It is culturally biased, even though there is a biological basis, because of neuroplasticity: the different number systems (base 4, base 10 etc.) of different cultures affect numeric memory just as different cultures have more/less sensitivity to various colors (amazing to me! - See for yourself). When Bell labs finally did their 'grand scheme' for phone numbers, they arrived at the country code, area code, 7-digit number scheme because of this ability of most humans to comfortably assimilate, manipulate, and store 7 digits.
 
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