4 8 15 16 23 42 :: Connect Four

The Connection with Connect Four

In the "Numbers" episode of Lost, Hurley goes to see Lenny at a mental hospital. Lenny is sitting at a table playing the game Connect Four by himself. He is repeating the numbers "4 8 15 16 23 42" over and over.

Are the numbers and the game connected in some manner?

The first number, 4, is in the name of the game.
The game board has 6 rows and 7 columns -- 42 spaces total, the last of the numbers.

Each of the 6 numbers can be represented in binary using 7 or less binary digits, i.e., the numbers can be shown on the Connect Four game board using the red and black pieces as representations of the binary digits.

In the following tables, we show some possible patterns on the Connect Four game board.

Table 1

Column 1 is the number. Column 2 is the binary equivalent. Column 3 shows more clearly what the game board would look like if the 0's are replaced by an O and the 1's by an X. Column 4 shows the inverse, i.e., replace the 0's by an X and the 1's by a O. Column 5 shows the binary equivalent of this inverse pattern. Column 6 is the number (base 10) for the binary value shown in column 5. Note that the corresponding values for columns 1 and 6 add to 127.

0000100

O	O	O	O	X	O	O
O	O	O	X	O	O	O
O	O	O	X	X	X	X
O	O	X	O	O	O	O
O	O	X	O	X	X	X
O	X	O	X	O	X	O

X	X	X	X	O	X	X
X	X	X	O	X	X	X
X	X	X	O	O	O	O
X	X	O	X	X	X	X
X	X	O	X	O	O	O
X	O	X	O	X	O	X

1111011

123

0001000

1110111

119

0001111

1110000

112

0010000

1101111

111

0010111

1101000

104

0101010

1010101

Table 2

The first three columns of this table are the same as the previous table. Column 4 is now what the board would like like from the opposite side. Column 5 shows the binary equivalent of the new pattern. Column 6 is the number (base 10) for the binary value shown in column 5. It is interesting that four of the numbers still appear from the opposite side.

0000100

O	O	O	O	X	O	O
O	O	O	X	O	O	O
O	O	O	X	X	X	X
O	O	X	O	O	O	O
O	O	X	O	X	X	X
O	X	O	X	O	X	O

O	O	X	O	O	O	O
O	O	O	X	O	O	O
X	X	X	X	O	O	O
O	O	O	O	X	O	O
X	X	X	O	X	O	O
O	X	O	X	O	X	O

0010000

0001000

0001111

1111000

120

0010000

0000100

0010111

1110100

116

0101010

Table 3

The two boards shown below are completely different than those above. For both boards, we've numbered the spaces starting with 1 in the lower left corner. For the board on the left, we number the spaces going from left to right and then up a row to continue. For the board on the right, we number the spaces going from bottom to top and then over a column to continue. In both cases, we've marked the squares containing the mystery numbers.

36	37	38	39	40	41	42
29	30	31	32	33	34	35
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
1	2	3	4	5	6	7

6	12	18	24	30	36	42
5	11	17	23	29	35	41
4	10	16	22	28	34	40
3	9	15	21	27	33	39
2	8	14	20	26	32	38
1	7	13	19	25	31	37

So far, I don't see anything too significant in the current analyses...

If you have some insight that you would like to share, send us an email using the Contact link at the bottom of the page.

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