I got a new cell phone yesterday, and the first # to come up was 274-9999. The phone lady widened her eyes and said, “Umm, I don’t think you want this one.” I chose a 2nd number, because the first one did sound kinda ugly (despite being easy to remember)…but it did seem like the girl freaked out a little bit when she saw the 9999 suffix.
So…has 9 ever been known as an unlucky number? According to wikipedia, #9 is a curse word in Chinese, but that doesn’t tell me much. (Just wondering if I’m gonna get run over by a bus tomorrow…)
I doubt it has anything to do with being unlucky. She may just have thought it was more like a business number or something like that (they reserve easy to remember numbers). What’s ugly about it? I would love to have an easy number like that and would have jumped on it!
If you’re in The Valley and have a Sprint account, it’s probably still available.
I associate numbers with colors, so I use the mnemoic of the color pattern to help remember the numbers. 274 is ugly black/yellow which clashes with purple, while the number I picked has a cool bluish-green pattern that’s pleasurable to dial, write and speak. (Also, saying “nine” four times in a row sounds kinda stupid.)
{WAG Alert}
There’s also the possibility that the CSR knew something about the previous holder of that number. Maybe the last person to have it had it changed to avoid a stalker or bill collectors. Or it belonged to a recently arrested drug dealer. Or the previous three holders of the number had it changed because it was formerly the number of a Domino’s Pizza and they got way too many wrong numbers. Or any variation on any number of possibilities like these.
eta: Hopefully, someone with experience in this area will be along shortly.
It’s possible that some people might regard 9 as spooky. It has some unusual properties that result from its being 1 less than the number base. For example we can check addition and subtraction by the process ofcasting out nines. In a number system based on 9 we would cast out 8’s. For example in a 9 based system
** 761 6
+365 6
1236 13**
In the first number, 761 we eliminate all 8’s or combinations that add up to 8 so we cast out 7 and 1 leaving 6 which we set down off to one side. In the second number we cast out 3 and 5 and set the 6 down under the first six. Now adding the two three digit number, mod 9, results in 1236. Casting out the 8’s leaves the digits 13. Adding up the two 6’s that were set aside, mod 9, yields 13. Both additions resulted in the same number so the answer is correct.
In the base ten system any product of 9 times any digit results in a number whose digits add up to 9. In a 9 based system any product with 8 adds up to 8. For example, all mod 9,
:rolleyes: not necessary. No numbers are unlucky, but some numbers are “unlucky.” That is, some numbers are called unlucky or considered unlucky by different people. Which is what the OP is asking about.
In the days of rotary phones, a phone number with lots of 9’s might have been a pain to dial.
My cell has three 9s in a row. It always leads to having to confirm that yes, it has three 9s in a row… Given that one of the cellphone prefixes is 699, you’d think that’s not so unusual!
So I don’t know about lucky, but giving it requires more work than a more-variable number. My brother has the same problem with his national ID# (four 4s in a row).
My old number in London was 998 9xxx. Most of the numbers in that part of town began with 998, and I always thought it was odd that they’d use that combination, considering 999 is the emergency number. I don’t know how many misdialled Ealing phonecalls the emergency services got, though!
Of course, nowadays that number is 8998 9xxx, which probably doesn’t improve things come to think of it!
When I picked my number from a list, the woman was shocked that I wanted the number I chose. It has “66” and “666” as well as two other digits. When I give someone my number, they tend to be a trifle unsettled.
> I associate numbers with colors, so I use the mnemoic of the color pattern to
> help remember the numbers. 274 is ugly black/yellow which clashes with purple,
> while the number I picked has a cool bluish-green pattern that’s pleasurable to
> dial, write and speak. (Also, saying “nine” four times in a row sounds kinda
> stupid.)
My home phone number used to end in 666. I didn’t mind- I’m not a Christian, and my family members who are aren’t into the whole 666 thing. I figured that, if somebody minded calling a number that ended in 666, they were somebody I didn’t want to talk to anyway.
FWIW, it is an “unlucky” number in Japan because 9 is a homonym for “suffering.” (Although it’s more accurate to say that one of the possible pronunciations of “9” is the same as one of t he possible pronunciations of the word “suffering”. The Japanese language has a lot of homonyms like this.)
