oh my god, this is SOOO Creeepy. If you take the equation:

y= 24.6x - 43.59x^2 + 31.88x^3 - 10.33x^4 + 1.53x^5 -.08x^6

it seems like a random equation, not very important or significant at all. BUT

if you put in 1 for x, you get 4.
if you put in 2 for x, you get 8.
if you put in 3 for x, you get 15.
if you put in 4 for x, you get 16.
if you put in 5 for x, you get 23.
if you put in 6 for x, you get 42.

Weeird.

Okay, actually it's not weird at all, you could find an equation that would work for any numbers whatsoever. Just thought I'd share the fact that I have now spent 20 mins of my life finding a sixth-degree polynomial equation for The Numbers on the off chance that the result somehow 'meant' something.
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"As soon as you discard scientific rigor, you're no longer a mathematician, you're a numerologist. " - Pi

Granted, but that's what's so particularly striking about the numbers, they are soo vague.

I mean if the numbers keep extending one would think that it's a part of an integer sequence.. and sure enough someone would find a sequence with those numbers in it.

if the numbers are kept short it also doesn't rule out the possibility that the numbers are 'initial values' to some bigger formula/equation, as they are entered into the computer. But the implications of this equation must be on a very high order, as in "Grand Unified Theory" type of equations. I've been looking if the numbers somehow has something to do with Shrodinger's equation, but that's just more wishful thinking than real anaylsis.

they add up to 108 (if that's known, this is connie chung with the late report)...
also, found this over at a DMB message board -

"Back in the day, I used to listen to a band called 108. I can't find the cd anymore, but they were considered to be part of the movement called "Krishnacore" which was basically hardcore straight-edge Buddhist rock. Buddhist principles through music, more or less.

"108" refers to the number of names for Buddha. "

http://www.nancies.org/boards/showthread.php?t=1678274597&page=92&pp=15

http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/articles/misc/why108.html

Very interesting list for ties to the number 108.

i'm,uh... not a mathematician. (more like an unmathematician, actually haha.) so what would this equation be used for? how would it apply in the real world?

there are 6 stations - on the island or wherever - as part of the hanso foundation's dharma initiative. is there a way in which the numbers could relate to these stations?
locations?
emanations?
any extrapolations?

...sorry. feelin' goofy:rolleyes:

So what does the equation mean? It's nice to think about the significance of the numbers, but (at this point anyway) it's all just guesses. Maybe there is no other meaning than it's just a sequence the writers used. On the show itself it obviously does have a meaning, but I think we can't (?) figure it out yet.

When I use your equation, I get numbers CLOSE to "the numbers" but not exactly the numbers from the show.

However, even though Dharma is definitly using the numbers, the numbers were being broadcast BEFORE the Dharma project started in the 70s.

Sorry,

double tap

No offense, but some of you people think too much. I know this is my first post here but I'm not a noob since I came from lost-forum.com and am not just registering here to badmouth people but seriously, do you really think that is going to have to do anything with the show? The majority of the world's population and the people that watch this are dumb idiots most likely. I highly doubt they would include something like that in the show. But anyways that's some pretty good math right there if you figured that out by yourself.

I think it's ok if the significance of numbers is well above the normal viewer as long as the explaination is understandable. I think all great novels, plays, shows, are supposed to be able to be interpreted on a low level, mid-level and higher level.

2 examples:

I don't think I even understood bugs bunny on the upper level until I was no longer a kid. I didn't have the historical or musical background necessary to "get" some of the jokes.

I think you can read Animal Farm and love the symbolism of the novel without "knowing" the links it has to WWII. Who's the old general pig? Marx who?

Personally, I'm looking into the probability that the numbers represent elements. Element 108 is Hassion. It is man-made and radioactive. I like that math people are looking into the connection to their field of interest.

So, in answer to the questions raised:

1. Yes. I spend way too much time thinking about this show. I won't be at all surprised if the numbers were just randomly chosen with no particular significance. If that's the case, I'm sure that an excuse for the number's significance may at some point be invented, but that the numbers themselves at the moment have no significance and will have no significance until the writers concoct one. Not unlike the number "42" from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy-- the number was featured prominently in the book and everyone was obsessed with finding a reason for the number "42"-- but the author swears there was no reason whatsoever.

2. That said, I couldn't help but looking for a pattern in the numbers anyway. If I had found a very simple equation that connected all the numbers, then maybe there was some kind of pattern in the numbers. But, the computers don't lie-- the best equation for the numbers turned out to be a sixth-order polynomial, and that's an equation so complex that it's the same as there being no pattern in the numbers at all (since there's a sixth order polynomial equation for ANY set of six numbers). As a result, the equation is pretty much useless for anything other than being silly at this point.

3. I'm flattered someone else actually took the time to try out the equation and noticed that the results are 'close' but not exact. That's because I never thought anyone other than me would actually try this out-- the exact coefficients are much longer, so for example, I wrote "24.6" but it actually is "24.612338". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curve_fitting for the math behind all this.

4. All this was just a warm-up exercise I did before trying to discover the binary code hidden in the Dharma logo. I was so convinced there was some message in that thing that my computer was running on it for a few days before i finally figured out that the logo is some ancient feng shui thing called a ba-gua that was invented centuries before Lost was ever conceived. (wouldn't if have been creepy if there had been a code in it all along that was discovered only because the symbol was featured on Lost? no such luck)

thanks for the answers, dude!