It seems if Sayid and Sam Toomey's wife are roughly correct that Sam Toomey must have picked up the start of the transmission of the numbers when they started 16 years prior to the crash.
Its nice that Toomey's wifes recollection matches up with Sayid's estimation of the transmissions start date.
Hurley doesn't know about the numbers being transmitted on the island until he meets Rousseau who tells him that there is a transmitter on the island. I don't know if he recalls the details of Toomey's wifes tale and that this island might be the listening post or more likely the origin of the original signal that Toomey heard.
Toomey told Hurley to get away from the numbers, get far away, but hes ended up closer than even it seems.
i checked Sayid's mental estimation and hes pretty much bang on (excluding leap seconds, years and the ever increasing length of the iteration number as well :P)
iterations x seconds = total time played
total seconds / 60 seconds = minutes played
total mins / 60 minutes = hours played
total hours / 24 hours = days played
total years / 365 days = years played
17,294,531 x 30 = 518,835,930 seconds
518,835,930 / 60 = 8,647,265.5
8,647,265.5 / 60 = 144,121.09166666666666666666666667
144121.1 / 24 = 6,005.0454861111111111111111111083
6,005 / 60 = 16.452179414003044140030441400297
16.45 = years played
Listening and timing the loop of the voice starting the iteration on the audio track of the show i came up with some odd ranges for the length of the loop though, this of course will be down to editing rather than reality, and i came up with lengths of 14,15,22,23 & 34 seconds for the loop.
I guess we can take Sayid's 30 seconds as gospel as it ties up with Toomey's wifes statement.
Toomey didn't tell Hurley to get away from the numbers, that was Leonard. There's also no evidence that the numbers weren't being broadcast before 16 years ago, that's just how far back we know they were being broadcast.--Tricksterson 07:21, 20 March 2006 (PST)
If sams wife is aware that he shot himself, we can be certain he wasn't on the island at the time, so how could he have come back to life travelled to the island, changed his name to a wierd russian/slavic one? this is wild speculation, not theory - Mikey - "so emo, it hurts"© 03:16, 27 May 2006 (PDT)
- I agree. There's not a shred of evidence to tie them together, or to place Toomey on the island. -- LOSTonthisdarnisland 23:37, 1 June 2006 (PDT)
Bean counter[]
Martha Toomey says that her husband used the numbers to guess the number of beans in a jar in a raffel, I think. Let's say, then, that the number he guessed was 4,815,162,342. That's about four billion. If there were four billion beans in that jar, it had to be a pretty big jar. Let's say each bean had a volume of 1 cm^3, that means the jar had to be 4.8 billion cm^3. Let's say you had a big cube of a jar, it would have to be 1686 centimeters on each side, or sixteen meters! That is an impossibly huge jar. Which leads me to wonder - Careless mistake by the writers, or devious one-legged Dharma-recruitin' Aussie wackjob? ??? - Mr.C
She just said he "used the numbers" he probably just added them (108). Thats a smaller jar of beans! --ISeeDeadPixels 09:26, 15 April 2007 (PDT)
- She said the jar was as big as a pony :) Also, using 108 wouldn't correspond to the 40 years that no one had guessed the numbers, since it had to be within 10 (+/-) and 100, which is within 10, would be very common guess, one would assume. However, I doubt even a "wackjob Aussie" would be suckered into working for DHARMA; we're not as gullible as Yanks ;) -- LOSTonthisdarnisland 00:28, 10 April 2008 (PDT)
I was wondering the same thing. I found a reasonable explanation: Sam MULTIPLIED the numbers together, which results in the number 7418880 (4*8*15*16*23*42). If we accept your rather huge 1 cubic centimeter beans, then we are talking about 7 cubic METERS. If we imagine a cylindrical jar which is 2 meters high ("as big as a pony"), then it would mean 2.34 meters diameters.Alcator 08:15, April 30, 2010 (UTC)
Losing a leg..[]
When Charlie and Hurley try to get Desmond drunk during "Flashes Before Your Eyes," they sing a drinking song. After finishing, this dialogue happens: Hurley: "Hey-do you know any songs about drinkin' and fightin' and girls with one leg?" Desmond and Charlie: "Girls with one leg and a heart of gold!"
I read in this article that Sam's wife lost a leg in the car accident. Are there other themes of losing legs? -elizamulcahy
Yes there are, see Missing body parts. --Lewis-Talk-Contribs 06:25, 10 October 2007 (PDT)
American?[]
Martha's comment in "Numbers" ("MARTHA: That's right, they served together in the U.S. Navy.") which leads me to believe he was American.. According to About.com, "While the following Navy Ratings (Enlisted Jobs) do not require U.S. Citizenship, one must be a legal immigrant (with a green card) residing in the United States in order to join any branch of the United States Military. The Navy cannot and will not assist with immigration. One must legally immigrate first, and then apply to join the U.S. Navy. Once an immigrant joins the U.S. Military, normal residency requirements are waived and they can apply to become a United States Citizen, after 3 years of active duty (sometimes less, during periods of hostilities). One must be a U.S. Citizen to become a commissioned officer, or to re-enlist in the military.". I'll add that he is American in a day or so if no one has an objection.-- LOSTonthisdarnisland 00:26, 10 April 2008 (PDT)
Trivia Suggestion[]
In Steven King's short story / TV Miniseries The Langoliers, a (rather obnoxious) character Craig Toomey was among the passengers who survived passing through a Time Warp during a flight from LAX to JFK(?). He unwittingly helps the remaining passengers escape by attracting the attention of the 'Langoliers,' creatures who devour the remnants of Time. Thurlowe 02:51, 25 January 2009 (UTC)thurlowe