QUESTION: The Chinese, being among the earliest mathematicians in the world, have held a long fascination with things numerical. Add to this the tonal nature of the Chinese languages, and you end up with numbers that take on their own meanings and stories. What number is considered "lucky" to the most Chinese?

ANSWERS:
Seven - Qi
This sounds like the words for 'wife' or 'angry' and is therefore probably not all that lucky for most Chinese - especially the male population!

Four - Si
This is a homonym for 'dead'. Most Chinese will go to great lengths to avoid the number four in their phone number or car number plate. Many tall buildings don't even have a 4th or 14th floor!

Three - San
'Class dismissed' or 'umbrella'. Neither of these homonyms is really terrible but not exactly lucky either.

Eight - Ba
That's it! It's really from the southern Chinese dialects (Cantonese and Fujianese) and it's because in Chinese the word for 8 "ba" is a homonym for "prosperity". A Chinese man in New York recently paid a record amount for a phone number with six 'eights'. And the Beijing Olympics will be in 2008!