Oh, it goes much more than just 47 being a prime number...2 squared equals 4, 7 is a prime number, 4+7= 11 prime number, 7-4= 3 prime number...I'm sure there's more
47 is a reference to a club at Pomona College, "The 47 Society". TNG & VOY writter Joe Menosky attended Pomona College. Rick Berman later joked that 47 is 42, corrected for inflation. Source: Memory Alpha entry for which I can't paste the URL.
“Jean-Luc Picard: Is this the 46?” - I think that moment is a clever metaphor for how Picard was damaged by the Borg, just a little. Even his brother realises it in that scene.
1947: June 18, 1947. Roddenberry's plane crashed down in the Syrian Desert, and Roddenberry, who took control as the ranking flight officer, suffered two broken ribs but was able to drag injured passengers out of the burning plane and led the group to get help, saving them. He resigned from Pan Am the next year and pursued writing. The Oatmeal and NPR did a great feature on this incident. Coincidence?
That's interesting. In the Star Trek Online game, the main player space on Earth Spacedock is Deck 47. It has the shuttle bay, Exchange, Bank, Uniform and Equipment Supply, Shipyard, Admiral Quinn's office, Medical Center, Transporter, and Club 47 nightclub.
Besides the real-world reference, I just think 47 is the perfect non-random random number. It's close to 50, so you had a good chance to guess it. It's the better part of a minute, but less than you'd think. 4 and 7 aren't adjacent and seven is odd, so it's more random than clean even numbers or adjacent numbers like 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, or 48. 49 may as well be 50. 41 may as well be 40. 45 is trying too hard to be as cool as 50. 47 is just... perfect.
It's also a prime number! In my experience, most prime numbers have a feeling of being suitably "random" and not having any noticeable patterns. I think that's a big part of what makes them appealing to my caveman brain.
@@augustday9483 Ahh! Good point. There is something satisfying about prime numbers. Although the ones that girl recites in the Foundation series are far too long, heh.
Like Julien said above, it was an inside joke at Pomona College in the mid 90s. Joe Menosky, a Pomona alumnus, included the number frequently starting with TNG Season 4, and it continued to be used in DS9 and VOY for a little while, until they got tired of it. Later, the number got some references in the J. J. Abrams movies. It's interesting that some of these 47s predate Menosky, which I guess is just a coincidence.
The series finale starts with Picard asking what day it is. Deanna says Stardate 47988, which gets repeated once or twice. There'd have been many mentions throughout the 7th season, though, because the 2nd digit of the Stardate corresponds. NextGen starts in the 41000 Stardates and so forth.
In filmmaking a "C47" is what you call a clothes-pin. They are used on set to attach colored gels to lights, adjust backdrops or outfits etc. So on a film set "Grab me a C47" is a common phrase. I wonder if that's why the writers had that number stuck in their head so often.
Unlikely. On Star Trek in the 90s, the writers were never on set, so they wouldn't be as versed or immersed in film crew lingo. The use of 47 is said to be from some jokey mathematical meme proof that all numbers equal 47.
Also numerous appearances of 53, the reciprocal number of 47 when dealing with percentages. In "Relics", Scotty's companion's transporter pattern had degraded by 53%.
side note: 2:52 has background detail that's blotted out on the DVD and original airing. the blu-ray restoration added more value than people might recognize.
You know what this means? We're stuck in a temporal causality loop, and the versions of us who were in the last loop are sending us a message. Our only hope is to figure out what they meant by 47.
Hopefully the arc of season 5 of Discovery will centre around unraveling the mystery of why “47” appears a statistically disproportionate amount in the Star Trek universe. My guess… transdimensional aliens executing an _eeeeevil_ plot to steal Earth’s strategic reserve of 47 tons of Gorgonzola cheese.
I just assume Ryan is an android with all episodes uploaded to his memory. Someone requests, "Fetch me all dialog with 47 in TNG." And this is the output.
And in Star Trek: First Contact, the comm chatter reports _"96 dead, 22 wounded on the Lexington."_ 96 - 22 = 74. That one might just be a coincidence, though, rather than a *really* hidden 47.
Curious, D is the fourth letter of the alphabet and the D7 is from TOS - but...but this well before the TNG writer Joe Menowski introduced the joke to the show! My god, you're onto something here!
My favorite is still when, in ST Imsurrection, Picard tells Anij he has 318 days of shore leave coming, which is 47 days less than a full year (except leap years).
And, in Generations, Mister Scott laments having beamed over 47 refugees from the Lakul before it explodes. There's also a smattering of 47s in DS9 and other shows.
I like that you didn't just use a 16:9 video just for one clip from the movie. I actually stopped for a second trying to think if there was an TV episode with the actress for Lily of someone who looked like her.
DATA: "...6 days, 13 hours, and 47 minutes." RIKER (sarcastically): "What, no seconds?" DATA: "I have discovered, sir, a certain level of impatience when I calculate a lengthy time interval to the nearest second. However, if you wish..." RIKER: "No, no. Minutes is fine."
47 is also the number of times I've watched each episode of ST:TNG! I may not have the names of the episodes memorized, but I can tell you the plot of one within 5 - 10 seconds of seeing it.
Don't forget in "Relics" Scotty notes Franklin's transporter pattern as degraded 53% therefore leaving ... and also how many survivors did Scotty save from the Nexus ribbon when he transported them from the ship that exploded in "Generations".
Some others have mentioned it, but I'd love to see all the "310 mark 215" or all the "(deck 15) section 21 alpha". Anything worth seeing is always in that direction, and always in that section. =)
T'POL: Our sensors are being disrupted and the Torothans have threatened to fire on us if we launch a shuttlepod. REED: How did you get here without them seeing you? ZOBRAL: There was a narrow gap in their orbital detection grid. It occurs once every forty six minutes, but it is only open for less than one minute.
47 is one of the Lucas numbers, which are related to the Golden Ratio. The last Egyptian pharaoh was born in 47 BC, and 47 AD translates to year 800 in the ancient Roman calendar.
I wonder if this is because humans are really bad at thinking of random numbers; If you ask people to pick a random number from 1 to 10, seven is the most common answer. Or maybe 47 *sounds* random/precise, which is much more important than actually being random or precise. If riker says "clear decks 10 through 50" it sounds like he's just making it up and guessing. If he says "10 through 47" then clearly that's an exact number picked for good reasons.
42 is the answer to meaning of universe and everything + 4 Most prominent Federation Captains ( Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Janeway ) + 1 Mission to explore strange new worlds...etc.. = 47 :D
If only Ryan could have edited out 13 seconds total to make the run time 2:47. I can see a few snippets to trim a second here or there especially at the start, but don't know that it'd be easy to trim quite that much.
The Manchester Mark 1 was built in 1948-9. It was based on the Manchester Baby built in 1948, which used the Williams-Kilburn Tube invented in 1946 for primary memory (not storage). However, the tube was greatly improved in 1947. It was the first practical CRT-based memory. Earlier memory used mercury delay lines, while later memory used magnetic cores.
When asked to pick a random number between 1-100, people often pick 47. It's in the middle, but a little below, but not Right below, and not even, so it seems random.
47 is a nice prime number. Soft beginning but more angular ending. Feels specific, like maybe a number we don’t hear often. I like it.
"like maybe a number we don’t hear often"
Heard it 47 times now. In three minutes, which is 47 minutes at warp factor 4.7.
@@chrisjlocke 😂 maybe it’s the other way around. My mind learned to like it *because* I’ve heard it so often on ST since childhood
Wow. Don't quit your day job.
Primes that end in 3 or 7 are nice. 23, 37, 43, 53, 57, 67, 73, 83, 87, 97
Oh, it goes much more than just 47 being a prime number...2 squared equals 4, 7 is a prime number, 4+7= 11 prime number, 7-4= 3 prime number...I'm sure there's more
They're just STILL caught in the "Cause and Effect" loop, and only someone with 47 pips on their collar can save them.
This is my new headcanon
47 is a reference to a club at Pomona College, "The 47 Society". TNG & VOY writter Joe Menosky attended Pomona College.
Rick Berman later joked that 47 is 42, corrected for inflation.
Source: Memory Alpha entry for which I can't paste the URL.
Divide 1400 by 33
Inflation is now at 7%
@@jtgd Get back to me when it's 47%.
Sure, that's what they want you to believe.
Question is, why was the 47 Society named the 47 Society.
"You have not experienced forty-seven until you have read it in the original Klingon."
loS'maH Soch
@@pentelegomenon1175 Perhaps, Worf, perhaps.
You forgot my favourite: Stephen Hawking winning the poker game with four 7's in Descent Part 1.
:O You just blew my mind
You raised Mr. Data 4, which means that umm...the bet is...ummm....7 to me???
“Jean-Luc Picard: Is this the 46?” - I think that moment is a clever metaphor for how Picard was damaged by the Borg, just a little. Even his brother realises it in that scene.
1947: June 18, 1947. Roddenberry's plane crashed down in the Syrian Desert, and Roddenberry, who took control as the ranking flight officer, suffered two broken ribs but was able to drag injured passengers out of the burning plane and led the group to get help, saving them. He resigned from Pan Am the next year and pursued writing. The Oatmeal and NPR did a great feature on this incident. Coincidence?
That's probably the best explanation on 47
@@BADD1ONE Thanks....Ryan, ignores me. :)
Well, you see, Data is just bullshitting his way through his Starfleet commission, and his random number generator is awful.
Well, it's not his random number generator's fault ... it just has the same seed of 47 every time...
It is theoretically possible for a random number generator to produce the same number multiple times in a row.
@@chrisjlocke A seed of 47 would still produce random numbers. If Lore was also using the seed 47, he'd produce the same random numbers.
47 is 42 adjusted for 400 years of inflation.
That's interesting. In the Star Trek Online game, the main player space on Earth Spacedock is Deck 47. It has the shuttle bay, Exchange, Bank, Uniform and Equipment Supply, Shipyard, Admiral Quinn's office, Medical Center, Transporter, and Club 47 nightclub.
Besides the real-world reference, I just think 47 is the perfect non-random random number.
It's close to 50, so you had a good chance to guess it.
It's the better part of a minute, but less than you'd think.
4 and 7 aren't adjacent and seven is odd, so it's more random than clean even numbers or adjacent numbers like 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, or 48.
49 may as well be 50. 41 may as well be 40. 45 is trying too hard to be as cool as 50.
47 is just... perfect.
I agree! It reminds me of how watches are almost always set to 10:10 in advertisements; aesthetically pleasing and doesn’t cover the logo
It's also a prime number!
In my experience, most prime numbers have a feeling of being suitably "random" and not having any noticeable patterns. I think that's a big part of what makes them appealing to my caveman brain.
@@augustday9483 Ahh! Good point. There is something satisfying about prime numbers. Although the ones that girl recites in the Foundation series are far too long, heh.
This!
But have you heard Patrick Stewary say twenty-three?
You missed Scotty from “Generations” saying he transported 47 out of 150 from the Lacule.
Wonder if the writers had a running joke to see who could get "four seven" into an episode.
Like Julien said above, it was an inside joke at Pomona College in the mid 90s. Joe Menosky, a Pomona alumnus, included the number frequently starting with TNG Season 4, and it continued to be used in DS9 and VOY for a little while, until they got tired of it. Later, the number got some references in the J. J. Abrams movies. It's interesting that some of these 47s predate Menosky, which I guess is just a coincidence.
@@EebstertheGreat or the Pomona thing is a cover story.
The series finale starts with Picard asking what day it is. Deanna says Stardate 47988, which gets repeated once or twice.
There'd have been many mentions throughout the 7th season, though, because the 2nd digit of the Stardate corresponds. NextGen starts in the 41000 Stardates and so forth.
Yup. First digit, "4" corresponds to the century, 24th - while the second digit corresponds to the season number.
@@Jogwheel It's a good thing there are only ten years to a century.
WTF?! LOL.
And Patrick Stewart was 47 when he first appeared on screen as Captain Picard.
You should do a supercut of "310 Mark 215."
Is it "215?" I always thought it was "214."
It’s 215
And they all say the 310 as zero or OH! Love it
In filmmaking a "C47" is what you call a clothes-pin. They are used on set to attach colored gels to lights, adjust backdrops or outfits etc. So on a film set "Grab me a C47" is a common phrase. I wonder if that's why the writers had that number stuck in their head so often.
Another comment said Pomona College has a Club 47 so maybe it's called that because of C47 pins
Unlikely. On Star Trek in the 90s, the writers were never on set, so they wouldn't be as versed or immersed in film crew lingo. The use of 47 is said to be from some jokey mathematical meme proof that all numbers equal 47.
Also numerous appearances of 53, the reciprocal number of 47 when dealing with percentages. In "Relics", Scotty's companion's transporter pattern had degraded by 53%.
Beautiful! Should've ended with the clip of Picard asking his brother if it was the '46, followed by the long disappointed pause and the "'47."
I watched this video 47 times. I couldn't have done this without being at peak performance.
side note: 2:52 has background detail that's blotted out on the DVD and original airing. the blu-ray restoration added more value than people might recognize.
It's amazing to me that they used this number so much, and I never noticed.
2:11 Geordi ensures the headrest is 47 millimeters lower on one side.
You know what this means? We're stuck in a temporal causality loop, and the versions of us who were in the last loop are sending us a message. Our only hope is to figure out what they meant by 47.
Hitchhiker's guide: The meaning to life, the universe, and everything is 42.
Star Trek: 47.
47 is 42 adjusted for inflation
@@crabobserver rip the space economy
Hopefully the arc of season 5 of Discovery will centre around unraveling the mystery of why “47” appears a statistically disproportionate amount in the Star Trek universe. My guess… transdimensional aliens executing an _eeeeevil_ plot to steal Earth’s strategic reserve of 47 tons of Gorgonzola cheese.
I had a similar thought. It could make an interesting episode and it would be an awesome tie in.
1:58 I love that pregnant pause before Robert's reply. You know exactly what he's about to say, and yet, the tension is almost palpable. :)
There are 47 lights! Amazing stuff.
Ryan, your steady supply of Supercuts is astounding and so f**king entertaining.
Love this channel❤️
I just assume Ryan is an android with all episodes uploaded to his memory. Someone requests, "Fetch me all dialog with 47 in TNG." And this is the output.
@@nitehawk86 👍🏻😂😂yes, he is very ‘Data like’.
They also like course headings that end in "mark 215". Listen for it, especially in DS9.
It's not just numbers, they also use identifiers such as: 4G or D7, or decimals such as 4.52
And in Star Trek: First Contact, the comm chatter reports _"96 dead, 22 wounded on the Lexington."_
96 - 22 = 74. That one might just be a coincidence, though, rather than a *really* hidden 47.
Curious, D is the fourth letter of the alphabet and the D7 is from TOS - but...but this well before the TNG writer Joe Menowski introduced the joke to the show! My god, you're onto something here!
My favorite is still when, in ST Imsurrection, Picard tells Anij he has 318 days of shore leave coming, which is 47 days less than a full year (except leap years).
Something tells me you could figure out half of the writing staff's debit PIN numbers from these scenes...
And, in Generations, Mister Scott laments having beamed over 47 refugees from the Lakul before it explodes.
There's also a smattering of 47s in DS9 and other shows.
47 is just such a perfect sounding random number
I like that you didn't just use a 16:9 video just for one clip from the movie. I actually stopped for a second trying to think if there was an TV episode with the actress for Lily of someone who looked like her.
To now, we have seen 10,000 suspicious occourances of the number 47
DATA: "...6 days, 13 hours, and 47 minutes."
RIKER (sarcastically): "What, no seconds?"
DATA: "I have discovered, sir, a certain level of impatience when I calculate a lengthy time interval to the nearest second. However, if you wish..."
RIKER: "No, no. Minutes is fine."
47 is also the number of times I've watched each episode of ST:TNG! I may not have the names of the episodes memorized, but I can tell you the plot of one within 5 - 10 seconds of seeing it.
Get that down to within 4 - 7 seconds of seeing it, and we'll talk.
In the future, bacteria is so scarce and everything is so clean, food dropped on the floor has a 47-second rule.
Coincidence? Ehh, tough to say. If they said ‘47’ a couple dozen more times, I may start to believe. 🤷🏻♂️
And what is your favorite HK droid?
Don't forget in "Relics" Scotty notes Franklin's transporter pattern as degraded 53% therefore leaving ... and also how many survivors did Scotty save from the Nexus ribbon when he transported them from the ship that exploded in "Generations".
Riker: "Perhaps, Data. Perhaps."
Data: "Oh, it's 47, sir. At least that's what the last 2 minutes and 59 seconds of clips would seem to indicate."
I love TNG and Hitman, so this is the best
good luck 47
So before we decided to go from 32 bits to 64 bits there was some talk of going to 48 bit, with one as the null state, that leaves... 47.
Douglas Adams was only five out...
Some others have mentioned it, but I'd love to see all the "310 mark 215" or all the "(deck 15) section 21 alpha". Anything worth seeing is always in that direction, and always in that section. =)
anything with a mark value over 180 is heading the wrong direction
All of them are from TNG. That's just prime
They do a few 420 references too but they're SUPER subtle. They'll say like, "set course for 40 mark 20"
$10 says Voyager has "...for Seven?" or "Fore Seven" etc. in a line.
T'POL: Our sensors are being disrupted and the Torothans have threatened to fire on us if we launch a shuttlepod.
REED: How did you get here without them seeing you?
ZOBRAL: There was a narrow gap in their orbital detection grid. It occurs once every forty six minutes, but it is only open for less than one minute.
I never noticed this and I watch this show almost constantly
47 is one of the Lucas numbers, which are related to the Golden Ratio. The last Egyptian pharaoh was born in 47 BC, and 47 AD translates to year 800 in the ancient Roman calendar.
They cannot escape the Hitman's influence.
0:46 onto 47, nice.
"We conducted a poll to find the most random-sounding number."
"How many people did you ask?"
"You're not gonna believe this..."
I wonder if this is because humans are really bad at thinking of random numbers; If you ask people to pick a random number from 1 to 10, seven is the most common answer. Or maybe 47 *sounds* random/precise, which is much more important than actually being random or precise. If riker says "clear decks 10 through 50" it sounds like he's just making it up and guessing. If he says "10 through 47" then clearly that's an exact number picked for good reasons.
Good theories, if this were accidental. But it was a writers' room in-joke.
Me a Skeptic: Numerology is bullshit
Data: I can give you 47 plausible reasons for this.
I’d love to see the other ST show’s usages of 47 as well…
i like 47 very much because not only is it prime, the digit sum is 11 which is also prime and the digit sum of that (2) is prime too.
You'd think Data would have noticed how unusually common 47 is on the Enterprise.
42 is the answer to meaning of universe and everything + 4 Most prominent Federation Captains ( Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Janeway ) + 1 Mission to explore strange new worlds...etc..
= 47 :D
Wow I have seen every episode at least three times and never noticed this.
Q! This has gone on long enough.
Some interesting replies. The real reason is no other number has the alliterative sound to it as 47.
This reminds me of the self-parody episode of Stargate in the final season when they poke fun at their own arbitrary 37 minute wormhole duration.
If only Ryan could have edited out 13 seconds total to make the run time 2:47.
I can see a few snippets to trim a second here or there especially at the start, but don't know that it'd be easy to trim quite that much.
Great now i'm going to notice this every single damn time it pops up.....
Species 8-47-2... whaaaaa?
I noticed this. I always wondered if it was just a recognition bias on my end.
By curious coincidence, 47 is the number of inches that Riker can raise his leg before he topples over.
At the moment I clicked on this, the video was posted 47 minutes ago. Happy coincidence.
It's an odd number with a good number of syllables to be inserted into dialog
1947 the first electronic storage tube was tested I think it was called the Manchester mark I. Also the same year as the Roswell UFO shenanigans.
The Manchester Mark 1 was built in 1948-9. It was based on the Manchester Baby built in 1948, which used the Williams-Kilburn Tube invented in 1946 for primary memory (not storage). However, the tube was greatly improved in 1947. It was the first practical CRT-based memory. Earlier memory used mercury delay lines, while later memory used magnetic cores.
I love the 47 reference.... I've noticed it in my own live. Have you?
how did i never notice this
Riker and Una are very disappointed.
It must be time for a Number One supercut.
This is amazing
When asked to pick a random number between 1-100, people often pick 47. It's in the middle, but a little below, but not Right below, and not even, so it seems random.
After this I'll have to admit myself to ward 47 of the Tilonus Institute for Mental Disorders.
WOW!
Maybe it's an inside joke like Star Wars has with Thx 1138.
Ambassador Spock, there must be some sort of correlation to this 47
1:10 data is just like "oh come on, again?"
welp this changes how i watch tng forever
And this is just the TNG references. Imagine the number in Voyager and DS9.
There's something going on because the USS Relativity NC number started with 47. Both Voyager and Defiant started with 74!
I believe 47 is just 42, adjusting for inflation...
47 sound like a number you’d use if you were making up numbers but didn’t want others to know you were making them up.
If only they had worked it out so that there were exactly 47 references to "47" in the canon.
It's *just* about half of 100, but not quite.
I’m 47 years old. In just under two days time. Stop stalking me Ryan
"weren't there about 40 people killed?"
"bitch don't you know the trope?"
I never realized it was mentioned so often
As requested! Thanksss
47 is highly significant in Freemasonry/Mystery religion.
Damn. I started watching this at 48 minutes of its upload.
Feel like if this included Voyager clips it would go for an hour 😅
had to edit the script down to 47 min to adjust for commercials.
The video’s up to 46K views. Just 1,000 to go!
That’s twenty units higher than Weird Al’s favorite number 👍
Uploaded forty SIX!?! minutes ago?! Godsdammit.
47% it's about 50/50 but we didn't want to get your hopes up.