Ironic Sans: Choose wisely.

That was *easy*.

Posted by: Björn Kristinsson | October 14, 2008 9:39 AM

Of course it’s Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy.

Posted by: Anna | October 14, 2008 9:48 AM

I shouldn’t be writing this…Big brother is watching!

Posted by: 1984 | October 14, 2008 10:08 AM

This is spooky - I just voted for 42 and when the results came up it shows that 42% of the votes so far have been for 42.

Coincidence? I think not!

Posted by: Steve | October 14, 2008 10:09 AM

I want to pick all of them though!

Posted by: quells | October 14, 2008 10:16 AM

I went where imagination was, but what about “Maybe 0, maybe 1, depends”?

Posted by: Mitternacht | October 14, 2008 10:38 AM

I see you omitted e. How irrational of you.

Posted by: Rockwell | October 14, 2008 10:59 AM

I see you alienated all the electrical engineers by choosing i over j. Now I’ll have to think of some other number that best defines me as a person. :D

Posted by: Zac | October 14, 2008 11:10 AM

I would never vote for pi at less than 10 decimal points.

Posted by: Dalton | October 14, 2008 11:32 AM

of course the answer is always 42, it encompasses life, the universe, and everything.

Posted by: Maria | October 14, 2008 11:32 AM

woot! Givin’ a shoutout to the 0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13. Second place so far! I feel like i’m in such a community.

Posted by: spudart | October 14, 2008 11:36 AM

I second the irrational lack of e.

Posted by: some guy | October 14, 2008 11:51 AM

You mean CLASSIC 90210, right? Not the lame CW show? I have to stand by Brenda, Kelly, Donna, et al. I’m just a child of the 90s, and I had to follow my heart.

Posted by: Katie Alender | October 14, 2008 12:01 PM

It’s only fitting that the answer to this poll is 42 when the Ultimate Question is unknown.

Posted by: elizabeth | October 14, 2008 12:02 PM

This is spooky - I just voted for 1984 and when the results came up it shows that 11% of the votes so far have been for 1984.

Coincidence? I think not!

Posted by: spookMeister | October 14, 2008 12:07 PM

90210

Posted by: brian | October 14, 2008 12:10 PM

FIBONACCI 4 LYFE

Posted by: Miles | October 14, 2008 1:03 PM

you have fibonacci but no primes?

Posted by: nothingmuch | October 14, 2008 1:04 PM

Who am I?

I am Jean Valjean!

Posted by: mph | October 14, 2008 1:23 PM

Picking 42 for everything is so lame and unoriginal.

Posted by: Jacob Bijani | October 14, 2008 1:28 PM

Fibonacci FTW!

(George Frankly and Kate Monday were the best babysitters I ever wish I’d had.)

Posted by: Travis Seitler | October 14, 2008 1:32 PM

I voted i but everyone knows that engineers really call it j.

Posted by: Marcos | October 14, 2008 1:49 PM

Can we assume that 1.618 is Fibonacci’s running mate?

Posted by: Dan | October 14, 2008 1:59 PM

pi is always yummy! although 42 is all encompassing .. tough choices indeed!

Posted by: AA | October 14, 2008 2:01 PM

I was pleasantly surprised at the exclusion of 1337.

Posted by: Ryan Hartkopf | October 14, 2008 2:02 PM

Not all engineers use j, but for pure beauty:

e^(i*pi) + 1 = 0

Posted by: Alex | October 14, 2008 2:25 PM

Huh, I really should have picked 42. I didn’t think about the fact that the poll had no question; I just think Fibonacci is more geeky than 42. Damn.

Posted by: Jon the Geek | October 14, 2008 2:33 PM

Silly, silly people. Everyone knows that if the question is imaginary, the answer is too. ^_^

Posted by: solarbird | October 14, 2008 2:50 PM

Interestingly, PLZ 24601 is just outside Wankendorf, Germany.

Posted by: bob | October 14, 2008 3:07 PM

8 5 4 9 1 7 6 3 2 0

Posted by: Madeleine | October 14, 2008 3:41 PM

i decry the lack of 1.618 and, especially, 1.414

Posted by: adrien | October 14, 2008 4:02 PM

2^n

Posted by: Eliot | October 14, 2008 5:12 PM

Why isn’t 45100 an option? Or 3735928559? 0 and 1 are pretty important too. (I voted for the Fibonacci sequence.)

Posted by: Rangi | October 14, 2008 5:40 PM

24601 that is the account number for research

Posted by: mayu | October 14, 2008 5:53 PM

I pointed my husband to this entry and while we were talking about it he voted. And now I can’t. Darn it. Darn IP trackers. I will vote from school tomorrow.

I hope you will explain them all some time. There are 2 I don’t know.

Posted by: Lady S | October 14, 2008 6:10 PM

Yes, I would have picked e, had that been an option. I have an irrational fondness for it.

Posted by: neklaw | October 14, 2008 6:33 PM

What, no 451?

Posted by: Kathleen | October 14, 2008 6:47 PM

What about everyone’s favourite number from ages 11-14? 5318008

Posted by: nickf | October 14, 2008 7:14 PM

Dalton:
I thought the exact same thing! I still voted for it, but reluctantly.

Posted by: Superdotman | October 14, 2008 7:25 PM

Who am I? 24601!

Posted by: BV | October 14, 2008 7:38 PM

c = 3.0 x 10^8

Posted by: Aaron | October 14, 2008 8:02 PM

Although there are many great choices here I have liked an option to vote for 1337.

Posted by: Aaron L | October 14, 2008 8:21 PM

I would have liked to have had the option of “other” with a text box to enter our own selection.

Posted by: Altissima | October 14, 2008 9:19 PM

I voted for 1138. It’s the only one I don’t know.
*sobs*

Posted by: KMG | October 14, 2008 10:15 PM

When I voted it said this “Total votes: 1337.”

And I felt a little silly for being happy about that.

Posted by: lauren | October 14, 2008 10:26 PM

i would always’ve voted 42, but i just seen 300 and, this is spartaaaaa.

Posted by: tom | October 14, 2008 11:30 PM

I can’t believe you omitted 23. It must been a conspiracy…

;}P>

Posted by: DrJon | October 14, 2008 11:30 PM

You forgot 6655321.

Posted by: Scott | October 14, 2008 11:36 PM

I’ve got fond memories of pi from high school. A bunch of my friends had a running contest during 9th grade on who could memorize the most digits.

Posted by: Kyle | October 15, 2008 12:45 AM

The correct answer is 4 8 15 16 23 42.

Obviously.

Posted by: Jacob | October 15, 2008 1:33 AM

how about

2,147,483,647

Posted by: k | October 15, 2008 2:24 AM

I feel really stupid for only knowing the first, third and fifth answer (I voted 42 of course). I wish I was more of a geek than I turn out to be!

Posted by: Greet | October 15, 2008 6:00 AM

Suggestions for arbitrary poll part 2:

$2,718,281,828
202-775-0101
666
21-12-2012
555-3226
00111010 00101001
80386

Posted by: PKM | October 15, 2008 6:08 AM

Suggestions for arbitrary poll part 2:

$2,718,281,828
202-775-0101
666
21-12-2012
555-3226
00111010 00101001
80386

Posted by: PKM | October 15, 2008 7:07 AM

Bah - disappointed at the extremely poor showing for 1138. Fanboi FAIL.

Posted by: Matthew Pennell | October 15, 2008 7:57 AM

I wanted to vote, but “wisely” wasn’t one of the choices, so I abstained.

Posted by: pannonica | October 15, 2008 10:22 AM

I voted 4 8 15 16 23 42 and when the results came up not a single one of those numbers appeared in the percentages. I feel kind of like I lost.

Posted by: Brad | October 15, 2008 12:48 PM

This was hard… I went with i… cause it’s awesome. But it was really hard to pass up 42 and the Fibonacci sequence…

Posted by: theo | October 15, 2008 1:04 PM

1138? I’m guessing that that’s a direct reference to George Lucas.

As in “THX1138” his first film. I believe the number has been spotted in most other films of his too. See this link for more info:

http://www.eeggs.com/items/1067.html

Posted by: Andy | October 15, 2008 1:44 PM

What happened to “37”?

Posted by: Ken B | October 15, 2008 1:57 PM

I would have voted for π had it actually been on the poll. 3.14 indeed. I went for i.

Posted by: Anonymous | October 15, 2008 2:03 PM

I’m disappointed at the lack of a 1701 answer :)

Posted by: Brent the Closet Geek | October 15, 2008 2:05 PM

I’d have voted for e if it were there or π if there were more digits, so it came down to Fibonacci vs. i. Lately I’ve been on a fractal kick again, so i won out.

Posted by: fluffy | October 15, 2008 2:07 PM

Another missed # —> 137

I ended up having to go with Fibonacci. But hey, I recognizing all of the numbers!

Posted by: David W | October 15, 2008 2:20 PM

No 1.618?

Posted by: Invader Xan | October 15, 2008 2:24 PM

Where the hell is 47?

Posted by: BB | October 15, 2008 2:24 PM

“Publish failed: Renaming tempfile ‘/home/25821/domains/ironicsans.com/html/polls/david/2008/10/index.php.new’ failed: Renaming ‘/home/25821/domains/ironicsans.com/html/polls/david/2008/10/index.php.new’ to ‘/home/25821/domains/ironicsans.com/html/polls/david/2008/10/index.php’ failed: No such file or directory”

And all I wanted was to vote for the Fibonacci sequence…

;)

Posted by: jokergirl | October 15, 2008 2:47 PM

Engineers use j because i was already taken. Far be it from them to change THEIR convention and foist off a name change on some other field. The cads.

Posted by: cjy | October 15, 2008 2:52 PM

where’s the 23? ;)

Posted by: chr | October 15, 2008 2:56 PM

I know all of them except 24601… what’s the significance of that one?

Posted by: phunk | October 15, 2008 3:01 PM

Where are your powers of 2? I would have voted for that in a heartbeat if it had been listed. Oh well, 1984 it is…………..

Posted by: American Voyager | October 15, 2008 3:04 PM

What, no 2112? For shame!

Posted by: Alex Dunhill | October 15, 2008 3:07 PM

Here I sit, serving your tax dollars, feeling like THX 1138….

Posted by: UmTutSut (Sure, why not?) | October 15, 2008 3:19 PM

I’m with the others - 1138 should RULE.

Posted by: Forbin | October 15, 2008 3:28 PM

I’m with the others - 1138 should RULE.

Posted by: Forbin | October 15, 2008 3:29 PM

Mitternach had the right idea. If you’d just offered “0” and “1” as possibilities, we could have just left the waveform uncollapsed. Everybody wins!

Posted by: Bob Munck | October 15, 2008 3:51 PM

What about 2813308004?
Kidding, I always go with 1138, but because of the Star Wars reference. I’m all about prisoner transfers.

Posted by: Nisah | October 15, 2008 4:02 PM

What about 2813308004?
Kidding, I always go with 1138, but because of the Star Wars reference. I’m all about prisoner transfers.

Posted by: Nisah | October 15, 2008 4:03 PM

What about 2813308004?
Kidding…
I always go with 1138, but because of the Star Wars reference. I’m all about prisoner transfers.

Posted by: Nisah | October 15, 2008 4:04 PM

It’s all about 5318008. Nothing more, nothing less.

Posted by: Bmo | October 15, 2008 4:24 PM

Since the question is unknown, the ONLY logical answer could be 42.

Posted by: Knurl | October 15, 2008 4:25 PM

I’m disappointed not to see 1 4 9 in there.

Posted by: Crux Australis | October 15, 2008 4:40 PM

Scott: In the movie it was 655321 and most people have seen the movie and not read the book, so it would sort of be unfair.

nickf: Why 11-14 only? I’m 35 and it’s still one of my favorite numbers.

For the record, I went with 42 since we don’t know the question, and it is the ultimate answer.

Posted by: Josh | October 15, 2008 5:11 PM

I’m completely shocked that Fibonacci is doing so well, but I couldn’t vote for anything else. i is irrational, and Pi to two decimal places isn’t really Pi.

I don’t know what 4 8 15 16 23 42 is, though… maybe if I knew I’d have chosen differently.

Posted by: Kat | October 15, 2008 5:23 PM

I’m completely shocked that Fibonacci is doing so well, but I couldn’t vote for anything else. Imaginary numbers cause oscillation, and Pi to two decimal places isn’t really Pi.

I don’t know what 4 8 15 16 23 42 is, though… maybe if I knew I’d have chosen differently.

Posted by: Kat | October 15, 2008 5:25 PM

8675309 - I was pretty surprised to see a HoMM 2 cheat code in the list, I had to click it ;)

Posted by: Wo Hu | October 15, 2008 5:30 PM

Ummm, I chose “i” because it asked you to select “one.” Well, all the other choices had more than 1 character in the answer, soooo… “i”.

Posted by: bo beena | October 15, 2008 5:35 PM

Attention all planets of the solar federation, we have assumed control! Where’s my 2112, eh?

Posted by: DaveKan | October 15, 2008 6:02 PM

No 299,792,458 m/s? That’s my favorite.

Posted by: Dallas | October 15, 2008 6:27 PM

24601 is an “interesting” zipcode. totally blank on google maps. Hrmmmmm

Posted by: featheredfrog | October 15, 2008 7:13 PM

The world will know that free dorks stood against nerds, that few stood against many, and before this battle was over, even nerds can bleed*.

*a very small number of votes from a poll.

Posted by: D-Rock | October 15, 2008 7:29 PM

I was going to pick 3.14, being the closest number on your list to the value of pi, but it was just not close enough for me to pick - maybe if it went on for more than 10 digits…. Thought about i, but I don’t like imaginary numbers. So I went with the classic HHGttG number of 42. If you had “pi” there, I would have picked that.

Posted by: Jim | October 15, 2008 7:51 PM

I also wanted either e to the pi i or 8675309.

Posted by: DG Lewis | October 15, 2008 8:01 PM

538 would have had considerable topical value for the politics Junkies out there.

Posted by: JDStackpole | October 15, 2008 8:09 PM

One way to make a question tougher on a test is to allow for more than one answer to be correct. I think many of us would have been much happier to vote for *all* answers that invoked pleasure. The resultant spread would have been interesting: which answers don’t spur enough loyalty when there isn’t a penalty for picking all that apply?

Posted by: chgo_liz | October 15, 2008 10:59 PM

I wanted to vote for e (2.718281828459045…).

Posted by: zandperl | October 15, 2008 11:00 PM

To the person who asked: 24601 is a reference to the novel Les Miserables.

Posted by: katie | October 16, 2008 12:03 AM

I’d suggest 6.02x10^23, but I fear I’d be the only chemist out there voting for it.

Posted by: LtStorm | October 16, 2008 6:25 AM

I would’ve voted 32768

Posted by: RoyK | October 16, 2008 8:42 AM

1138. Cause it inspired 138. Which we are.

Posted by: Jeff | October 16, 2008 10:49 AM

I… I didn’t see the 24601. I went with 3.14 because I was eating pie from my pi plate at the time. There’s a grief that can’t be spoken.

Posted by: folle | October 16, 2008 11:50 AM

I love being one percent of the populace.

“Come back with your shield, or on it.”

Posted by: Kurt Settles | October 16, 2008 12:04 PM

Man, Where’s 29.97? I had to go with 1138.

Posted by: Noah | October 16, 2008 12:27 PM

69, dudes!

Posted by: John Kelly | October 16, 2008 12:34 PM

I’m a big fan of phi myself, but I had to go with i, my favorite imaginary number.

Posted by: Timechick | October 16, 2008 4:11 PM

It’s only fitting that the answer to this poll is 42 when the Ultimate Question is unknown.

Anyone who has read the series would know the question to the answer is 8x6 (read Restaurant at the End of the Universe.) Obviously you haven’t read the series.

Posted by: Dennis | October 16, 2008 8:26 PM

376.73313 would have gotten my vote.

Posted by: JohnnieCanuck | October 16, 2008 9:40 PM

ncc-1701 ?

Posted by: matthew | October 17, 2008 1:14 AM

I would have picked “i”, but since I am an EE we call it “j”, and I didn’t recognize it at first. So I had to resort to Fibonacci.

I agree with some above posters. “e” really should have been there, and pi needs a few more digits, at least, to be recognizable as pi.

Posted by: Allanimal | October 17, 2008 2:00 AM

Salutations, gentlefolk,

Wondering how many of those who chose 42 did so in honor of the person who wore it ?

Yours, John

Posted by: John | October 17, 2008 3:33 AM

Also a push for 1.618.

Posted by: zachol | October 17, 2008 4:00 AM

I would like to have seen more ones and zeros….

Posted by: binaryblue | October 17, 2008 3:36 PM

Hey, I think you should make another poll, and include lots more numbers.

Posted by: Anna | October 18, 2008 12:21 AM

Next time you’ve got to include 634-5789.

Posted by: Andrew | October 18, 2008 3:15 AM

2 - 3, 2

Posted by: Alex | October 18, 2008 2:02 PM

Zac brings up a good point, by including j you could have fleshed out the engineers from the mathematicians/physicists

Posted by: Alex | October 18, 2008 8:48 PM

It looks like there aren’t too many “Lost” fans here…4 8 15 16 23 42 are the “cursed” numbers that add up to 108 (the central number on the show). Being a die hard Lost fan, I nearly cried when I saw that sequence as part of the list.

Posted by: Mina | October 19, 2008 1:58 PM

42 = jackie…

Biggest CHANGE 4 HOPE ever

Posted by: Branch Rickey | October 20, 2008 11:06 AM

Where was tits? How could you leave out tits as an answer? Not fair..not fair at all!

Posted by: Zoober | October 20, 2008 6:42 PM

Crap, there’s always an essay component

Posted by: Randy | October 21, 2008 3:42 AM

Crap, there’s always an essay component

Posted by: Randal | October 21, 2008 3:45 AM

Now; tell me what a VP actually does?

Posted by: devolute | October 22, 2008 5:11 PM

Go 24601!!

But while here, let’s examine something. I’m sure you’re all aware of this recent craze over numerology and dates (ie - June 6, 2006 was supposed to be the end of the world, bad day to get married/have a baby, etc while July 7 2007 was a lucky day). Well, October 10, 2010 written in numeric form is 101010. 101010 is the binary number for 42. In short, 101010 will be the day that mice take over the Earth and we finally get the question!

Posted by: Justin | October 23, 2008 11:06 AM

Well, I picked the Fibonacci sequence since there wasn’t a 2 10 11 for eyes, fingers, toes. Yeah, I’m and Addams fan…

Posted by: Melissa | October 23, 2008 2:00 PM

I think an important number in our culture would be, ‘16’.

it’s the perfect square…4 times 4

two squares, squared…the perfect geek.

Posted by: catnapping | October 24, 2008 1:20 PM

Odd — I picked 42 for no apparent reason, other than it looked nice. I was surprised to find it was the most popular answer, and now I guess I finally have to read Hitchiker’s Guide….

Posted by: steve | October 24, 2008 6:55 PM

I’m surprised there isn’t more shoutout to 47…

Posted by: Ryan | October 26, 2008 2:43 AM

I’d just like to point out that I voted for 1984 in relation to the Van Halen album and not the novel by Geore Orwell.

Thank you.

Posted by: Ian | October 28, 2008 10:33 AM

42 all the way man.

Posted by: me | October 31, 2008 10:25 PM

DEAD BEEF

Posted by: Agamemnon | November 1, 2008 2:37 AM

42
but I was tempted by others too (1984/the fibonacci series/i)

Posted by: Silencer | November 5, 2008 5:05 PM