The Numbers

4 8 15 16 23 42

During the second season of LOST it was revealed that the numbers are the code that must be entered into the computer located inside The Hatch every 108 minutes (By the way 4 + 8 + 15 + 16 + 23 + 42 = 108). Entering the numbers resets the countdown timer to 108 minutes. It is not explained to viewers what is to occur if the numbers are not typed in, except it is believed to be bad.

Bunker Hieroglyphics

If an individual does not push the button in time, the numbers flip to a series of glyphs . While the numeric sequence is flipping into these icons, an individual can still finish typing in the numbers, press execute, and return the counter to 108 minutes.

Note that the mysterious project the hatch was built for is called "The Dharma Initiative". The word "Dharma" means "moral duty", and the number 108 is very important in Buddhist mythology. To many Budddhists, there are 108 sins (or "defilements" of mankind. It is for this reason that New Year's celebrations, such as those in Japan, feature ringing a bell 108 times as well as one possible reason most Buddhist prayer beads (mala) have 108 individual beads.

Appearances

• On the hatch
• On the medicine that Desmond injects into his arm
• On the vial that Claire was injected with in the Medical Station
• In the mental ward
• Shannon's father Adam Rutherford died in Jack's emergency room at 8:15 a.m. after being involved in a car accident with the future Sarah Shephard.
• Hurley sees them at the airport on the team jersey of a girls football (soccer) team
• Kate- $23,000 bounty on her head
• Kate- Buried her time capsule 8/15
• Kate- Robbed safe deposit box #815
• Charlie- Selling copier model #815
• Jack- Sat in row 23
• Sawyer - His dad killed himself when Sawyer was 8
• Ana-Lucia- Sat in row 42
• Danielle- Same numbers led her to the island
• Hurley- Hotel in Sydney room number 2342
• Hurley- As his car dies, the speedometer reads the numbers in descending order
• Hurley- Wins the lottery using the numbers
• Hurley- Paid $1600 to scooter man in airport
• Flight #815
• Gate #23
• Michael’s clock said 5:23
• Claire was 8 months pregnant when the crash happened
• 15 - Number of hours Shannon didn’t want to be stuck on a plane next to a crying baby
• 4 people on the raft.
• 4 people kidnapped Walt
• Sun’s watch said 11:15
• Michael and Walts’s room #815
• Sarah Shephard- Had the number 44 on her shirt in the hotel scene.
• Sarah told Jack that her wedding was in 8 months from the time of the crash.
• #108 on wall mural. 108 is the sum of the numbers.
• The last number for combo for the lock and the last number shown when accessing the gun safe were 42.
• Jack's badge number was all the numbers.
• Danielle's child Alex would be around 16
• 23 is the number of people who survived the crash from the tail-end of the plane.
• Jack falls and hurts his ankle on step #23
• Sayid was 23 when he was captured in the Persian Gulf War.
• Sayid said the recording from Danielle had been playing for 16 years, 5 months.

• Danielle's notes contained the numbers written 7 times, along with a mathematical formula.
• In Kate's flashback when she's listening to the tape that she and Tom made, the date on it is August 15 (8/15)
• On the vacine bottle when Claire is getting the needle

Compiled on 4815162342.com

-4-

• - # of years Locke was in his wheelchair.
• - # of guns in the marshal's case.
• - # of aces on Boone's t-shirt.
• - # of circles in Oceanic “O”
• - # of planes in the plane mobile in the Nursery
• - # of years since Hurley's grandfather got his pacemaker.
• - # of years since Sam Toomey killed himself.
• - # of years since Sawyer made his 'Birthday wish'.
• - # of people that went on the raft.
• - # of months Michaelangelo stared at marble 'working' in Locke's story.
• - # of months Boone asks if they're going to stare at the hatch
• - # of miles due west back to the camp from where Locke ties up Boone.
• - # of people Michael needed to help dig Jack out of the cave-in.
• - # of refills of Shannon's inhaler Boone brought with him.
• - # of days that pass before Jack decides to burn the fuselage and bodies for a signal.
• - # of kids the nurse taking care of Michael has.
• - # of traps Locke sets up around camp to catch Ethan.
• - # of times Hurley says Charlie shot Ethan.
• - # of months the psychic tried to convince Claire to raise her baby alone before giving her money and telling her of the couple in LA.
• - # of planes on the mobile in Claire's dream.
• - # of dotted dice in a backgammon game.
• - # of weeks ago Locke says he wouldn't have believed his crazy talk either (while talking to Boone).
• - # of times Boone repeats "Theresa falls up the stairs, Theresa falls down the stairs."
• - # of times Locke bangs on his car roof at the end of "Deus Ex Machina."
• - # of shots that are fired by the male bank robbers in "Whatever the Case May Be."
• - # of times Locke bangs on the Hatch before it lights up.
• - # of people Charlie asked about their bloodtype.
• - # of bottles of water Hurley filled for his hike to see Danielle.
• - # of times Jin hits the raft with the axe before running off to help Kate.
• - # of letters Michael flips through when handed the box of letters by Walt's nanny.
• - # of stars in the DC logo on Walt's comic book.
• - # of times Shannon touches/brushes Boone's hair before the camera cuts to Sayid and he goes over to console her.
• - # of months Dr. Arzt says is the next time they can launch the raft.
• - # of people present at the Hatch's opening.
• - # of people at the black smoke.
• - # of Others on the boat.
• - Jack plays the key B4 on the piano.
• - Shannon asks Boone what he and Locke have been doing in the jungle for the past 4 days.
• - Sayid said the French signal could be a Sat 4.
• - Leonard was playing the game Connect Four.
• - Walt says he needs 4-3 in the backgammon game.
• - Sayid's friend stole and was using C4 for the suicide bombing.
• - The car magazine description Sawyer reads to Aaron says the car has 400 horsepower.
• - The car magazine description says he car has a 4.4 litre power plant under the hood.
• - Ana-Lucia was shot 4 times.
• - Ana-Lucia was off work for 4 months after the shooting.

-8-

• - # of months Claire was pregnant when they crashed.
• - # of kilometers the hitman tells Jin to drive.
• - # of people that die in Hurley's shoe factory fire.
• - # of whiskey shots between Sawyer and Christian Sheperd.
• - # of hours Kate would spend in the woods with her father tracking deer.
• - # of years since Michael got hit by a car.
• - # of years Michael's been writing to Walt.
• - # of months Locke and Helen have been talking.
• - # of days Charlie went without his guitar.
• - # of weeks DriveSHAFT was going to tour.
• - # of days after the crash Jack & other survivors moved to the caves.
• - # of years Michael worked in construction.
• - # of months since the farmer' wife had died when he met Kate.
• - # of years since Kate was arrested (according to the mug shot, assuming the flight was in 2004).
• - # of times Jin punches the guy he was "giving the message" to for Sun's father.
• - # of beers Jack's best man says he should have before giving the speech.
• - # of people kneeling in the second row of the mosque.
• - # of the aisle the regulation size footballs are on.
• - # of sides in the octagon found inside the hatch.
• - Sawyer's age when his dad killed himself and his wife.
• - Shannon's age when her dad married Boone's mom.
• - News station at Hurley's lotto interview was channel 8.
• - Walt was born in August, which is the 8th month.
• - Claire was missing for 8 days after Ethan took her.
• - Charlie's shoe size
• - The car magazine description Sawyer reads cays the car has a V8 engine.
• - The old guy in the airport (who Hurley buys the scooter from) has an 8 on his hat

-15-

• - # of members on Danielle's research team.
• - # on whiskey bottle that Sawyer and Christian drink from.
• - # of hours Boone flew to rescue Shannon.
• - # of kilometres to nearest town from the Australian farm.
• - # of the aisle the Nerf footballs are in.
• - # of years since Kate and Tom buried the time capsule until she took the flight (assuming the flight was in 2004, that is).
• - # of miles out to sea the raft was when they found the blip on the radar.
• - # Shannon says she doesn't want to sit next to a crying baby for the next 15 hours.
• - # First number in Locke's combination to the Armory when Henry Gale is held captive

-16-

• - Number of years Danielle’s distress signal has been looping.
• - Number of weeks since someone had won the lottery before Hurley did.
• - Number of years since Sam and Lenny heard the numbers.
• - Number on the numerical die in the backgammon game.
• - Number of red dots in the oceanic “O” logo.
• - Jack, Kate, and Charlie found the pilot 16 hours after the crash.
• - The age of jack's first patient to operate on as a solo procedure.
• - Jack told the lady at the airport desk he had to land in LAX in 16 hours to bury his father & flight was 16 hours long.
• - The 4 dotted dice in backgammon game are on 4, 6, 2, 4. When added = 16.
• - There is a poster on the wall of the pool hall in "Confidence Man", the date is June 16th.

-23-

• - Number of times Jack hits Charlie on the chest while performing CPR before Kate tells him to stop.
• - Number of times we hear Jin hit the axe on the raft.
• - The digits 23 appear as part of a pin number on one of the crates found inside the drug plane.
• - There is a poster of the wall at the pool hall in "Confidence Man", the date is May 23rd.
• - When Michael looks at the clock in the hotel room it displays 5:23 am.
• - Jack's seat number was 23B.
• - Flight left from gate 23.
• - Number of original survivors from the tail section.
• - The age of Sayid when the Americans came to his country.

-42-

• - # of spaces in a game of Connect Four.
• - # of numbers on the papers from Danielle. (7 rows of 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42)
• - Claire was 6 weeks late when she found out that she was preganant (6 weeks = 42 days).
• - Ana's seat number was 42F.
• - 4orty 2wo Entertainment (http://www.4orty2wo.com) is a specialist company that excels in ARGs and the number 42 has often been a 'calling card' for the company's involvement.
• - The number of Hurley's hotel room is 2342.
• - # that appears in the graffiti mural in the hatch.
• - According to the Oceanic Airlines website (http://www.oceanic-air.com), there were 42 rows of seats on Flight 815

-815-

• - # of the safety deposit box that Kate wanted to get into.
• - # of a building Sayid walks by.
• - The copiers that Charlie was trying to sell were model # C-815.
• - 8 & 15 were the aisle numbers for the regulation a Nerf footballs.
• - Kate and Tom buried the time capsule on August 15, 1989 (August 15 = 8/15. 19+89 = 108 - the sum of the numbers)
• - The flight number was 815

-MAJOR MULTIPLES-

• - The price of Walt's comic book in Spain is $800.00.
• - The price of Walt's comic book in Chile is $1,600.00.
• - The price of Walt's comic book in Argentina is IS $4.00.
• - Plane hit turbulance at an altitude of 40,000 feet.
• - Charlie jokes about Locke bringing 400 knives.

{----Correction----He actually says "Who has room for 800 knives, then he says I would only have room for 4 or 500 myself} (---2nd correction. Charlie actually did say 400 knives, but that he would only need 200, maybe 300---)

• - The guy with the beans was running the scam for 40 years.
• - “Adam and Eve” have been in the caves 40 years.
• - Sawyer got $160,000 from the girl's husband in his scam.
• - Locke's mom was born in 1940; 19+4+0=23
• - Reward for info on Kate was $23,000.
• - Jack's fiance's shirt had 44 on it.
• - 44 survivors left after Boone's death.
• - Hurley gave the old guy $1600 for the scooter.
• - Hurley left his mom $160 million.
• - The appointment when Claire wanted to sign the adoption form was at 8:15 AM.
• - Word number 815 in the greek bible lexicon is ateknos and it means childless and might have something to do with THE OTHERS.
• - The number of years Hurley's mentor lived.
• - In the Dharma Initiative movie the number 540 is mentioned. (108x5)

-COMBOS-

• - 48 plane crash surviors. (4 & 8)

(If Jack is including the pilot and Ethan when he says it, it would mean that there are 46=4+42 survivors in the fuselage; note that 4 of them are dead at the end of season one: the marshall, Joanna, Scott and Boone; leads to 42 survivors)

• - Boone's shirt with the Chinese symbols stood for 84. (4 & 8)
• - DriveSHAFT is 234 on the juke box. (23 & 4)
• - When Hurley's car broke down they showed the speedometer (in KPH) go from 16 to 15 then they cut away and when they cut back it went from 8 to 4. The dashboard also displayed a temperature of 23 degrees Celsius and 42 km on the odometer. (4 & 8 & 15 & 16 & 23 & 42)
• - Hurley rides past 6 soccer players in the airport, each uniform has one of the numbers. (4 & 8 & 15 & 16 & 23 & 42)
• - According to thehansofoundation.org, The year that Alvar Hanso made his address to the U.N. Security Council is 1967. 1 + 9 + 6 + 7 = 23
• - Boone's accident is in episode 19 (42-23)

Boone dies in the 20th episode (16+4), Claires's Baby is born in the same episode Please keep in mind if you start adding and subtracting the numbers you can make up almost any theory that you want. It may be better not to speculate too much this way. Just my opinion.

• - In the Dharma Initiative movie the number 540 is mentioned. (108x5)
• - The real number of the intelligence tape Sayid saw was 23108-42
• - I was just reading on the boards and I found a thread about the flags on Locke's bedside table. One is the Spanish Cross of Burgundy (something like that) which was used in the year...drumroll please...1516!!!
• - The Numbers can be made into coordinates: 4.8151 S Lat., 174(Which is 180-6).2342 W Long. These coordinates lie in the Pacific Ocean, in a direct line between Sydney and Los Angeles

Interesting tidbit on the numbers as written on Danielle's papers.

4 8 15 16 23 42

4 8 15 16 23 42

4 8 15 16 23 42

4 8 15 16 23 42

4 8 15 16 23 42

4 8 15 16 23 42

4 8 15 16 23 42

8 is 8th number counting in standard reading format. 15 is 15th, 16 is 16th, 23 is 23rd and 42 is 42nd. If only the 4 was a 1 or 7 this would work with all the numbers.

Facts

• The numbers are 4 8 15 16 23 42.
• The numbers total 108 when added together.
• The numbers are used to reset the Countdown Timer inside The Hatch.
• The crew in The Swan was supposed to be replaced every 540 days - 108 * 5.

Which means that each crew will enter the numbers 7200 times

Occurences outside of the show

At least some of the numbers are well known as special numbers even before this show. It is likely that at least some of them where taken into the show for that reason:

• 08/15 is a german saying for "ordinary" or "boring", also used as a placeholder on demonstration objects
• 4, 8, 16 are binary numbers with only one "1".
• 23 is in several conspiracy theories the number of the "Illuminati". It is claimed to appear all over history.
• 42 is of course the famous "answer to life, the universe and everything" from the book "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". Even google tells you that, if you enter "answer to life, the universe and everything" as a search term.

A reference to some of the numbers is made in other shows or movies, some of them predating "Lost":

• Fox Mulder from "X-Files" (1993-1998) has one of them as appartment number and 23 and 42 appear throughout the show.
• "Alias" also makes use of the numbers on some occasions, which is notable because Alias and Lost are both made by Abrams.
• The numbers also make an appearance in "Veronica Mars", at the end of the episode "Donut Run" (2x11 - January 2006), on a fortune cookie that Duncan gives to Veronica. "Veronica Mars" airs on UPN in the same time slot as Lost.
• There is a german movie called "23" (1998) (more info on IMDB)
• All the numbers is retired Yankee jersey numbers

Ideas

• They may be coordinates
• Latitude: 4° 8 Min. 15 Sec./Longitude: 16° 23 Min. 42 Sec. is about 150 miles West of Bangui in The Central African Republic... about 400 miles SE from the border to Nigeria
• Possible coordinates: 4.815 N 162.342 W, shown on a map along with the air route mapping along the great circle route for SYD-LAX (which is the original flight-plan for Oceanic 815 map

• They seem to be cursed
• According to one of the Exec. Producers, they may have no meaning whatsoever.

• Keep in mind the Dharma symbols are similar to Bagua. Well they are easily broken back down to binary numbers, technically octal since there are 8 bagua symbols (the yin/yang lines around the outside).

• Decimal: 4 8 15 16 23 42 = 108
  
• Octal: 04, 10, 17, 20, 27, 52 = 154
  
• Hex: 4, 8, F, 10, 17, 2A = 6C
  
• Binary, 100, 1000, 1111, 10000, 10111, 101010 = 1101100
  

• Of course, we're not 100% sure the numbers are decimal, except for one key factor, that their sum in decimal is 108. If it weren't I'd say they had another base.

• All of the numbers correspond to retired Yankee jerseys.