Math blogger Alex Bellos was asked that question so many times; he decided to put a pencil to it.
Yes, we too were a bit surprised there are math bloggers but the research is fascinating on any level.
The answer, by the way, is seven.
This conclusion was not reached without a great deal of thought and work. "I learned that many people have genuinely strong feelings about numbers, and this realization prompted me to launch the survey, Alex told The Guardian.
So he put a poll online, still unsure of how many people would vote.
“The response surpassed my expectations,” he began. “Within a few weeks, more than 30,000 people had taken part.”
And it’s still growing.
“Total responses now stand at 44,000,” he says.
Alex told PRI the fascination with seven isn't new. "You go back to the earliest writers we have, and there are more sevens there than any other number," he noted.
And the Guardian points out there were seven brides, seas, sins, dwarves, and sisters, just to name a few.
The top ten numbers in the poll were.
* 1. 7
* 2. 3
* 3. 8
* 4. 4
* 5. 5
*6. 13
*7. 9
* 8. 6
* 9. 2
* 10. 11