SCHOOL PROJECT DAY TOOLS & RESOURCES

Why 7? Why not 21 or 100 New Wonders?

On July 7, 2007, or 07.07.07, the New 7 Wonders of the World were declared, chosen by people all over the world in the first-ever global election. But this was not the first set of wonders that the world has seen—over 2,200 years ago, a Greek engineer named Philon of Byzantium chose what we now call the Ancient 7 Wonders of the World. Back then, the Greeks had only discovered the land around the eastern Mediterranean Sea. So, since there were 7 wonders in that tiny area, shouldn’t we have more than just 7 in the whole, huge globe that we know today?

Well, that is a good question. But the man who started New7Wonders, Bernard Weber, found out that old Philon was even smarter than we thought, because he had chosen not only a very special number but also a very “practical” number of wonders: 7! This number is not only one that is found throughout history all over the world, but scientists have also found that this is exactly the number of things that an ordinary person can remember! At Princeton University in the Unites States, a professor named George A. Miller proved in 1956 that people’s brains have to make a little bit of effort to remember 7 things, but this effort makes the things really stick in our memories. So kids and grown-ups can challenge their brains a bit to remember 7 words, letters or other things—this is the „Theory of the Magical Number 7!” The declaration of the New 7 Wonders of the World has become „Global Memory”—7 things that everyone on our planet can remember.

There are also 7 colors in the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet

About New7Wonders

This may be why our week has 7 days! Maybe this is also why people most often choose the number 7 when they are asked to pick a number between 1 and 10? We also have 7 colors in the rainbow (remember ROYGBIV: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet?), 7 seas that are traditionally sailed by Sindbad and others, and each human has 7 holes in their head: 2 eyes, 2 nostrils, 2 ears and 1 mouth. For science fans, there are 7 rows or periods of elements in chemistry’s periodic table. There are also 7 major objects in the sky that we can see without any help from telescopes: the sun, the moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn.

The number 7 is also important in many cultures and religions. The Jewish Torah and the Christian Old Testament tell us that God created the world in 7 days and rested on the last day. When you look at the number 7 in Islamic cultures, it represents infinity (time or things that have no end) and also the number of heavens and earths. In ancient Egypt, the Pharaohs and their people saw the number 7 as a symbol of eternal life—so a lot like infinity. In many Western cultures, history tells us about 7 Deadly Sins and 7 Virtues. Buddha apparently walked 7 steps after he was born, and in North America, the Cherokee Native Americans sees 7 as the most important cosmic number. Japanese mythology gives us 7 Lucky Gods and Hinduism tells of 7 stages of reincarnation (being reborn into different lives) before the soul reaches salvation. The Indian tradition also shows 7 main chakras, or points of energy, in the human body. In lots of languages, you can say that you are in “7th heaven” when you are really happy.

All over the world, the number 7 can also be found often in music, literature, film, television and sport. The traditional Western major scale of music has 7 notes. More practically, telephone numbers in many countries around d the world, including the United States and Canada have had 7 numbers for a long time.

Thanks to the millions of people who voted for the New 7 Wonders of the World, humanity now has 7 things we can all share. We have created, for the first time ever, Global Memory!

More than 100 million votes selected the Official New 7 Wonders of the World that were announced on July 7, 2007. More than 6,000 schools and even more individual kids from countries everywhere participated in the campaign, which was the world’s first-ever global election. This time, the New7Wonders campaign is choosing the New7Wonders of Nature. Find out more on new7wonders.com

New7Wonders encourages teachers to integrate topics addressed by the New7Wonders campaigns in their classes. We welcome you to submit any work at new7wonderskidsandschools.blogspot.com.

Start a New7Wonders Project Day in your school!