A104101 The Lost Numbers.

4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42

Offset: 0

Author

Marcus Dicander, Mar 04 2005

Keywords

• nonn
• unkn

Comments

These numbers were central to the plot of the TV-series "Lost", episodes 18 and 201.

Another number in the sequence, perhaps the next one, is 540: the number of days which the team of two people who are addressed by the orientation film are to stay at station 3. 4+8+15+16+23+42 = 108 and 108 * 5 = 540. - Joshua Walton (joshuawalton(AT)hotmail.com), May 05 2006

According to the show, 108 is not officially a part of the sequence, it just happens to be the sum of those numbers. - Ville Saalo (vsaalo(AT)iki.fi), Nov 19 2006

For n = 0,1,2,3,4,5 (1/120)(42n^5 - 305n^4 + 1100n^3 - 895n^2 + 1018n + 480) gives 4,12,35,89,213,511 -- the binomial transform of 4,8,15,16,23,42. The sequence continues 1194,2622,5346,10150,18093.... The polynomial (1/120)(42x^5 - 305x^4 + 1100x^3 - 895x^2 + 1018x + 480) is the "Shaw-Basho polynomial". - Ross La Haye, Feb 26 2007

Links

• Marcus Dicander, The Lost Numbers: 4 8 15 16 23 42
• Lostpedia contributors, "The Numbers", Lostpedia
• Doug Shaw, The Lost Sequence
• Wikipedia, Mythology of Lost

Crossrefs

Cf. A122115, A130826.

Formula

It is easy to fit formulas to the first six terms, in a million different ways, but none of them are of any interest (the seventh term can be chosen to be any number you wish). - N. J. A. Sloane, Oct 22 2017