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325? 325?

As if “Lost” devotees didn’t have enough to ponder, with 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42. Now that they’ve been handed three more integers, the conclusion is inescapable: Hollywood has been invaded by numbers.

It’s not just the maddening numerical sequence on “Lost” or the crime drama “Numb3rs” with tousled mathematician Charlie Eppes.

Numbers are sprinkled through next fall’s TV line-up, too, with seven new integer-heavy titles including “The Nine,” “3 Lbs.” and “Six Degrees.”

“Numbers have always been hot,” says Keith Devlin, Stanford math professor. “It’s just that until recently, the media did not shine the spotlight on the heat.”

Moviegoers may have flocked to see Matt Damon in “Good Will Hunting” and Russell Crowe in “A Brilliant Mind,” but mathematicians weren’t exactly sex symbols.

“The Simpsons” managed to sneak math into its plots every so often – one of the writers has a Ph.D in applied mathematics – but math was subjecta non grata on prime time until recently.

But there was nothing understated about the intentions behind “Numb3rs,” says Cal Tech professor Gary Lorden, who serves as the show’s mathematical consultant. The creators designed the show specifically about the way – to quote the program’s weekly intro – “We all use math every day.”

The crime element was a vehicle to get it into prime time, Lorden said during a panel discussion on National Public Radio last year.

The pilot featured an FBI agent, his brilliant mathematician brother, a serial rapist and a killer math equation. Critics disapproved of the “unbelievable” plotline, but the story was based on an actual case in Louisiana.

And the equation that “Charlie Eppes” – actor David Krumholtz – used to pinpoint the rapist’s neighborhood was the one a real forensics mathematician used to solve the case.

Most mathematicians are not as cute as Krumholtz, admits Devlin, but the math is always spot on.

Test audiences, armed with dials to turn whenever their interest was piqued, went wild for the math, says co-executive producer Andrew Dettmann.

“When we asked, “Why did you turn up the dial when the math sequences were explained?’ they said they suddenly felt smart,” Dettmann recounts.

Lorden enjoyed the crime-solving, but he was absolutely delighted by the mathematical tidbits writers dropped into the show almost offhandedly – Fibonacci numbers, game theory and strange mathematical puzzles.

The show has taken off, both in the ratings and with an unlikely television fan base – teachers. At a national math educators conference last year, more than a thousand teachers lined up to see a screening and meet Lorden and Krumholtz.

“They (acted) like we were the Beatles,” Lorden said.

Last month, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics launched “We All Use Math Every Day,” an educational outreach program based on the show. Executive producer and co-creator Cheryl Heuton was delighted by the chance “to spread the word that “Math is cool!””

The cool factor is no surprise to Devlin.

“The fascination with numbers that many people have – not everyone, to be sure – sometimes goes deep,” he says. “It seems that people want there to be hidden mathematics in everyday life. And there is.”

While “Numb3rs” uncovers how we, well, use math every day, “Lost” goes for strange coincidences and mathematical relationships. And its mysterious numerical sequence – 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42 – is giving old Fibonacci some serious competition in the popularity sweepstakes.

The “Lost” numbers show up on a lottery ticket, a hatch cover and a mysterious radio broadcast. They have to be re-entered into the hatch’s computer every 108 seconds – and 108 is the sum of the numbers. It’s strange and compelling stuff.

There’s hope for numbers junkies next fall, too. “Lost” co-creator J.J. Abrams is at the helm of “Six Degrees,” one of those seven numerically-rich TV shows for fall. He plays off the “degrees of separation” idea with a story arc involving six New York strangers and – one hopes – strange numerical sequences and odd coincidences that might be explained using a logistic regression equation or iterative processes or that other thing Charlie Eppes explained so well.

Doing the math

“NUMB3RS”: The CBS show that started it all in 2004-05 stars David Krumholtz as hot mathematician Charlie Eppes, who helps his FBI agent brother solve crimes. The math? As improbable as the plots seem to be, they’re based on real crimes that were solved with mathematical forensics.

“LOST”: There’s no number in the title of ABC’s mystical juggernaut, but creator J.J. Abrams is fascinated – and therefore, so is everyone else – by a numerical sequence that has to be re-entered into a computer every 108 seconds. And 108 is the sum of the sequence. The math? Well, duh.

“20 Good Years”: A new NBC comedy about a midlife crisis. The math? We all use math every day. And here, they’ve apparently measured the length of time the protagonists have known each other, which is, er, math.

“Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” and “30 Rock”: NBC’s two new backstage-on-a-sketch-comedy-show vehicles. The math? Not so much, although bookies are using plenty of math to figure the odds on audiences buying two nearly identical concepts the same season.

“One Ocean View”: ABC’s new frothy beach drama. The math? Well, addresses are based on a numerical sequence.

“The Nine”: ABC’s new drama about the survivors of a bank heist/hostage thing. The math? Nine people, 52-hour hostage crisis, bank cash, 10-minute flashbacks … sounds like a mysterious numerical sequence.

“Six Degrees”: ABC’s take on the six degrees of separation features six New York strangers. The math? Well, it’s J.J. Abrams’ new project, so we can expect some “Lost”-like fascination with numbers and numerical relationships.

“3 LBS.”: CBS’ midseason replacement for 2006-07 features Stanley Tucci as a New York neurosurgeon, so you know he knows math. And if other medical dramas like “House,” are any indication, we’ll be hearing a litany of lab results, statistics and other math we use every day.

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FAMOUS NUMBERS

Long before J.J. Abrams penned Lost’s mysterious numerical sequence, there was Fibonacci. The 12th century Italian mathematician is best known for a numerical sequence derived by adding the two numbers that came before – 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21 and so on. The sequence appears in nature in the arrangement of flower petals, sunflower seed spirals, pine cones and the nautilus sea shell, for example.