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But what of individual numbers and their special meanings? Many numbers have a certain significance?
The number 1 is called an ace in playing cards. Words beginning uni signify one of something.
2 is the only even prime number. 2's company. Computers work with two states called binary.
3's a crowd depending on who you're with!
Many things are arranged in 4's. There are 4 suits in a deck of cards, 4 points of the compass, and 4 phases of the moon. There are 4 wings on a bee and 4 leaves on a clover, if you are lucky.
5 digits on each hand and foot. V, the Roman symbol for 5, may originate from the image of a hand with the fingers spread.
6 sides to a honeycomb, the most economical close-packing of wax cells. 6 faces to a cube.
Among many things that come in 7's are the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World, Shakespeare's 7 Ages of Man, the 7 Dwarves and the 7 Deadly Sins. How many of each can you name? 20p and 50p coins each have 7 sides.
8 days a week according to the Beatles.
There were 9 major planets in the solar system before Pluto was downgraded. Beethoven wrote 9 symphonies, and a cat is said to have 9 lives.
The 10 pins in a bowling alley are arranged in a triangular pattern. Virgins, according to the Bible, come in 10's: 5 foolish and 5 wise. Decimal numbers come in 10s.
12 months, 12 signs of the Zodiac, 12 apostles and 12 people in a jury in England and Wales (15 in Scotland).
13 is the `unlucky number' and Friday the 13th is supposed to be particularly unlucky. Perhaps because there were 13 seated at the last Supper. 13 original conspirators were foiled in the Gunpowder Plot. Witches gathered in covens of 12, then the devil joined them as no 13. Some aircraft omit Row 13 in their seats. Apollo 13 was an unsuccessful mission by the USA's NASA program to land a mission on the moon, although fortunately all of the craft's crew returned to Earth safely. 13 is supposedly the number of steps leading up to the gallows. But in some traditions 13 can be lucky. In Judaism, 13 is the age at which a boy achieves Bar Mitzvah. There were 13 original colonies in the USA. At 13 you can get a part time job, but only for 2 hours a day.
At 16, you can leave school, buy cigarettes, marry with parental consent. The compass rose has 16 points.
At 17 you are allowed to drive most vehicles.
18 holes on a golf course. In the UK, the names of race horses can be no longer than 18 characters, including spaces.
21 was formerly the legal coming-of-age when you received the `key of the door'. A twenty-one gun salute is fired in the UK for royalty and in the US for the President. It comes from the time when the largest ships of the British navy had 21 guns along one side.
24 carat gold means pure gold. All gold should have a hallmark on it somewhere showing its purity. 375 would be the marking for 375 parts out of 1000 signifying 9 carat gold.750 for 18 carat gold and 916 for 22 carat gold.
The best known feature of Stonehenge is the Sarsen Circle which was built as 30 upright stones with 30 lintel stones on top of them. Only 16 remain standing today.
In the A series of paper sizes the length of the paper is always √2 x width of the paper.