There are several different kinds of magic numbers. The digital root and magic constant are sometimes known as magic numbers.
In baseball, the magic number for a team in first place in a division is the number of games that team must win or the second place team must lose in order to clinch the division. The formula is
![magic number=[total number of games]-[number of wins by 1st place team]-[number of losses by the 2nd place team]+1.](/images/equations/MagicNumber/NumberedEquation1.svg) |
For example, the standings for the National League Central Division as of August 9, 2004 are summarized in the following table.
| team | wins | losses |
| St. Louis | 72 | 38 |
| Chicago | 61 | 50 |
| Houston | 55 | 56 |
| Cincinnati | 54 | 57 |
| Milwaukee | 52 | 58 |
| Pittsburgh | 51 | 58 |
There were 162 games in the season so, for example, St. Louis's magic number on that date was
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