7: The Magical Number

Greetings Dear Reader!

Stop any person in the street and ask them to choose an odd number between 1 and 10. More often not, they will say the number 7. A poll of 30,000 people confirmed that 7 is overwhelmingly their favourite number - with 3 in the second place. A remarkable 10% of those surveyed gave 7, from the infinite choice of numbers available, as their lucky number.

'7' is indeed a magical number. I have always believed that. Personally, it is also my lucky number. Of course I have my own reasons for it. Firstly, 7 is my date of birth. Interestingly, the sum of the digits of the day, month and year in which I was born (7th March, 1995) is also 7. (7+3+1+9+9+5 = 34, which in turn gives 3+4 = 7).

Snow White ran off to live with seven dwarves, Shakespeare described the seven ages of man, Sindbad the Sailor had seven voyages. And when Ian Fleming was looking for a code for James Bond, he didn't go for 006 or 008. Only 007 had the right ring.

Secondly, my favourite book series, the Harry Potter series has a total of 7 books. While I was reading the Harry Potter series, I came across certain details which point to the number 7. Few of them are listed below:

• The students have to study for seven years at Hogwarts.
• There are seven floors at Hogwarts.
• When Harry, Ron and Hermione travel through the trap door, they find seven tasks to win in order to get to the Philosopher's stone.
• There are seven Horcruxes created by Tom Riddle (Lord Voldemort).
• There are seven players in a Quidditch team.
• There are seven hundered ways to foul in the game of Quidditch.
• There were seven Weasley children.
• Mad-Eye Moody's trunk has seven locks.
• The 'Room of Requirement' is on the seventh floor at Hogwarts.

The number seven is important in many cultures and religions. There are seven steps to creating the Philosopher's Stone in the ancient science of Alchemy. There are seven days in a week, seven colours in a rainbow, seven virtues and seven vices as well as seven branches in a menorah. There are Seven Wonders of the World, seven sacred sciences and seven chakras. There are seven notes on a musical scale, seven seas and seven continents in the world.

In Greek mythology, seven is the symbol of Virgin. It is not possible to construct a perfect heptagon (a polygon with seven sides) or to divide the circle into seven equal portions using simple geometer's tools. Hence, seven is indivisible, unconquerable and virginal. In the ancient study of numerology, seven represents power and perfection.

Research states that people are particularly more emotionally attached to the number 7 than any other number.

Now I present some more interesting facts about the number 7-

(1.)

The sum of the dots on the opposite sides of the dice should always be seven. In case the design does not meet the rule, it is not legally accepted.

(2.)

The movie, with seven letters name, 'Zanjeer', directed by Prakash Mehra was the film that proved a turning point in Amitabh Bachchan's career and rose him to stardom. This time it was actor Pran's son who was responsible for bringing Amitabh Bachchan in the limelight. It was decided that Pran would play the role of a pathan in the movie 'Zanjeer', but the actor who would fight against the villain could not be found. Pran therefore suggested Prakash Mehra to watch the film 'Bombay to Goa'. Though he himself has not seen the movie, yet he had heard a lot of praises from his son for Amitabh Bachchan's acting in the movie. Upon seeing Amitabh Bachchan's fight scene displaying the character's anger and attitude, he immediately exclaimed that he found the hero for his film. He immediately left the theatre without watching the complete movie and later at night visited Amitabh Bachchan to offer him the role.

(3.)

President Ronald Reagan initially began his career as a Hollywood actor in 1937. He was chosen as the President of Screen Actors Guild in 1947 and finally was elected as a Governor as the state of California. His candidature for the post of President was declared in the 17th day of the 7th month of the year. He celebrated his 70th birthday on the 17th day after he was elected the President and was shot on the 70th day by John Hinckley whose bullet hit is 7th rib. Also, when Reagan retired from the post of President, his age was 77.

(4.)

On the 13th day of the battle of Kurukshetra between Kauravas and Pandavas, the Kauravas had designed a particular layout of seven concentric circles known as 'Chakravyuh' (labyrinth) to trap the Pandavas and defeat them. The seven chiefs of the seven respective traps in chronological order were: Duryodhan, Drona, Krup, Karna, Ashwathama, Brihadbal and Kritavarma. Abhimanyu who died at an early age of 16 (1+6 = 7) years, had fallen prey to the unethical ways of the war.

(5.)

The secret formula of preparing Coca-Cola was known by the company as 7X as it was a combination of seven constituents. Anything unknown or unidentified is prefixed or suffixed with the letter 'X' such as the X-rays, planet X or an assumption of a number 'X' in algebra. Therefore the letter 'X' was also suffixed with the number 7. 

Mysore's Central Food and Technological Research Institute marketed the new soft drink under the brand name '77' to commemorate the chasing away of Coca-Cola in the year 1977. Before '77' became popular in the market, the owner of Parle Exports, Ramesh Chauhan, took the consumer market by storm by launching the beverage, 'Thums Up'-a seven-lettered name!

Also read 'The Mystic Number Seven in the life of Abraham Lincoln' here.

Hence, the number 7 is undoubtedly the most special of all the numbers. There are many more facts related with the number 7, which I rest up on  you to discover. If you find any relevant articles, do not forget to post the link in the  comments below!

On that note, I  have come to the end of today's discussion. Today is the start of a new month. April has witnessed a lot of notable events in history. This whole month, I shall discuss such events that took place in the current month in the past. One such remarkable event was the invention of Rubik's Cube. I shall discuss the same in the next post. Do not forget to drop in you reviews and suggestions in the comments below! Bye!