Why are there so many 4's?

Have you ever wondered why there are so many ways to write the number 4?

[stupiditiusmaximus]

This feels like VSauce, starting with a question, and slowly back-tracking until you forget how you ven get here.

[ethanwhite]

This is how my brain operates every single day.

[satindra.r]

the fact that the final 4 contains another 4 is the cherry on the cake

[azrobbins]

I always eat with 8 chopsticks for good luck.

[ZipplyZane]

5:11 They not only skip 4 and 14, but also 13. Must be an international elevator.

[shashe]

I thought 'g' and 'a' was bad enough... But this... This is something else...

[nosamu]

I enjoyed the video, but as a Korean learner I just want to offer a little correction. 니 does not mean "you", and 미안합니다 means "sorry", not "thank you"! Specifically, 미안 means "sorry", and the 하다 ending turns it into a verb, which is conjugated to 합니다 (the formal/polite form). Anyway, I love your style of humor, please keep it up! 😄

[QuippingHazard]

i like how if you skip forward 10 seconds you are IMMEDIATELY lost and IMMEDIATELY kicked from his train of thought, lost in the sea of concept and tangent, never to understand how it links back to 4

[purplenickname]

When you realize the last "4" doesn't even equal 4 💀💀💀

[minguri_]

I wonder people how was born on 4/4/2004 would feel about this video ?😂

[V-ICR]

There is a Cyrillic character that looks similar to one of the types of fours:
Ч ч

[dinfam]

Underappreciated. Thank you for your filling in for Sam o' nella.

[SteinGauslaaStrindhaug]

1 comes with or without a serif.
3 comes with a flat or round top
4 has the variants discussed here
7 comes with or without a middle slash, a leading serif and varying levels of slanted vertical stroke
9 comes with curly tail (like a rotated 6) or a straight tail.
0 comes as just a circle, with a slash, backslash, dot or notch.

[SigmaRho]

Bank Gothic, Eurostile, Peignot and Helvetica are examples of modern sans serif fonts that have closed 4 glyphs. For some modern fonts such as OCR-A (which is a hybrid serif/sans-serif font) the 4 is open. What is also notable about OCR-A is that there are serifs on the 6 and 9 glyphs.

[HeyKevinYT]

The investigation into Gangnam Style got me

4K is definitely a thing in China, but more commonly it's called UHD. Streaming site resolutions rarely just have a number (eg "720p"), it often has a name (eg "HD 720p") or just the name (eg "HD").

[ramgmaa]

Thank you, now i can't stop see different fours everywhere

[nofas]

I like how the final example on how to write 4 included a 4 in it

[Oznej]

The closest glyph might be the Chinese character 丩 - an old and obscure word meaning to graft a vine. You'll find it in Japanese and old Korean as well. And of course the Cyrillic letter Ч, used for the ch-sound - it was also used in the Latin script for the Zhuang language until 1982 to mark the fourth tone.

[hiiamelecktro]

Remembered learning about the curved 4 when I was like 8. Did a math test where I used it. The teacher counted every single one of my answers where I used 4 wrong. Only right angled 4 was allowed :(