Significant Number Factoid Friday – Today The Number Is Twelve 12 (Part 1)

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

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Welcome to significant number factoid Friday.

Today the number is twelve and as usual it has a lot more associations that you might at first think. So many in fact that I have decided to split this post into two parts.

The second part (next Friday) will consist of the many entries in the ‘militaria’ section, while today’s will include the rest.

Even with the split it’s still a long post, but I hope those of you interested in numbers and their associations will enjoy reading it.

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The Number Twelve  12

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In religion

• The number 12 is very important in many religions, mainly Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, but also found in some other belief systems.
• From the Bible we know that Jacob had 12 sons, (Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph and Benjamin), who were the progenitors of the Twelve Tribes of Israel.
• The New Testament describes twelve apostles of Jesus; after Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus and hanged himself, a meeting was held (Acts) to add Matthias to complete the number twelve once more.
• The Book of Revelation contains much numerical symbolism, and a lot of the numbers mentioned have 12 as a divisor.
• Revelation 12:1 mentions a woman—interpreted as the people of Israel, the Church or the Virgin Mary—wearing a crown of twelve stars (representing each of the twelve tribes of Israel).
• Also there are 12,000 people sealed from each of the twelve tribes of Israel, making a total of 144,000 (which is the square of 12 multiplied by a thousand).

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• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
• In Orthodox Judaism, 12 signifies the age a girl matures (bat mitzvah)
• There are 12 days of Christmas; the period of thirteen days including Epiphany is sometimes known as Christmastide, thus Twelfth Night is another name for the twelfth day of Christmas or January 5 (the eve of Epiphany).
• Similarly, Eastern Orthodoxy observes 12 Great Feasts.
• In Twelver (or Imami) Shi’a Islam, there are twelve Imams, successors of the prophet Muhammad. These twelve early leaders of Islam were—Ali, Hasan, Husayn, and nine of Husayn’s descendants. Imamah is the Shi‘ah doctrine of religious, spiritual and political leadership of the Ummah. The Shi‘ah believe that the A’immah (“Imams”) are the true Caliphs or rightful successors of Muhammad, and Twelver and Isma‘ili Shi‘ah further that Imams are possessed of supernatural knowledge, authority, and infallibility as well as being part of the Ahl al-Bayt, the family of Muhammad. Both beliefs distinguish the Shi‘ah from Sunnis.
• In the Quran, the Sura number 12 is Sura Yusuf (Joseph), and it is located in Juz’a number 12. This Sura narrates the story of Prophet Yusuf and his 12 brothers.
• In Hinduism, the sun god Surya has 12 names. Also, there are 12 Petals in Anahata (Heart Chakra. There are twelve “Jyotirlingas” in Hindu Shaivism. The Shaivites (orthodox devotees of God Shiva) treat them with great respect and they are visited by almost every pious Hindu at least once in a lifetime.

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• In antiquity there are numerous magical/religious uses of twelves.
• Ancient Greek religion, the Twelve Olympians were the principal gods of the pantheon.
• Greek mythology has the twelve labors of Hercules.
• The chief Norse god, Odin, had 12 sons.
• Several sets of twelve cities are identified in history as a dodecapolis, the most familiar being the Etruscan League.
• In the King Arthur Legend, Arthur is said to have subdued 12 rebel princes and to have won 12 great battles against Saxon invaders.

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In mathematics

• Twelve is the smallest number with exactly six divisors, its divisors being 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 12.
• Twelve is a sublime number, a number that has a perfect number of divisors, and the sum of its divisors is also a perfect number.
• Twelve is a superfactorial, being the product of the first three factorials.
• The first four positive integers show up in the following equation 12 = 3 × 4, which can be continued with the equation 56 = 7 × 8.
• A twelve-sided polygon is a dodecagon.
• A twelve-faced polyhedron is a dodecahedron.

• Regular cubes and octahedrons both have 12 edges, while regular icosahedrons have 12 vertices.
• The duodecimal system (1210 [twelve] = 1012), which is the use of 12 as a division factor for many ancient and medieval weights and measures, including hours, probably originates from Mesopotamia.
• In base thirteen and higher bases (such as hexadecimal), twelve is represented as C. In base 10, the number 12 is a Harshad number.

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In science and technology

• Twelve is the atomic number of magnesium in the periodic table.
• The human body has twelve cranial nerves.
• The duodenum (from Latin duodecim, “twelve”) is the first part of the small intestine, that is about twelve inches (30 cm) long. More precisely, this section of the intestine was measured not in inches but in fingerwidths. In fact, in German the name of the duodenum is Zwölffingerdarm and in Dutch the name is twaalfvingerige darm, both meaning “twelve-finger bowel”.
• Vitamin B12, also called cobalamin, is a water-soluble vitamin with a key role in the normal functioning of the brain and nervous system, and for the formation of blood. It is one of the eight B vitamins. The vitamin is the largest and most structurally complicated vitamin and can be produced industrially only through bacterial fermentation-synthesis.
• Dichlorodifluoromethane (R-12), a colorless gas usually sold under the brand name Freon-12, is a chlorofluorocarbon halomethane (CFC), used as a refrigerant and aerosol spray propellant. Complying with the Montreal Protocol, its manufacture was banned in the United States along with many other countries in 1996 due to concerns about damage to the ozone layer. It is soluble in many organic solvents. Dichlorodifluoromethane was also the main component of Silly String.

• Force 12 on the Beaufort wind force scale corresponds to the maximum wind speed of a hurricane.
• There are twelve function keys on most PC keyboards (F1 through F12)
• There are twelve keys in any standard digital telephone (1 through 9, 0, * and #)
• Microsoft’s Rich Text Format specification assigns numbers congruent to 12 mod 256 to variants of the French language.

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In space

• Messier object M12 is a magnitude 8.0 globular cluster in the constellation Ophiuchus.
• The New General Catalogue object NGC 12 is a magnitude 13.1 spiral galaxy in the constellation Pisces.
• The 12th moon of Jupiter is Lysithea.
• Twelve people have walked on Earth’s moon.
• Telstar 12, is a commercial broadcast satellite used in telecommunications, operated by Loral Skynet. It is a Ku band satellite with coverage of North America as far West as Cleveland, Ohio, the majority of South America, Europe as far East as the United Arab Emirates and South Africa. Telstar 12 also has the capability to provide intercontinental connectivity including trans-Atlantic to the Mid-East.

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• Apollo 12
• Apollo 12 was the sixth manned flight in the United States Apollo program and the second to land on the Moon (an H type mission).
• It was launched on November 14, 1969 from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, four months after Apollo 11. Mission commander Charles “Pete” Conrad and Lunar Module Pilot Alan L. Bean performed just over one day and seven hours of lunar surface activity while Command Module Pilot Richard F. Gordon remained in lunar orbit. The landing site for the mission was located in the southeastern portion of the Ocean of Storms.
• Unlike the first landing by Apollo 11, Conrad and Bean achieved a precise landing at their expected location, the site of the Surveyor 3 unmanned probe, which had landed on April 20, 1967. They carried the first color television camera to the lunar surface on an Apollo flight, but transmission was lost after Bean accidentally destroyed the camera by pointing it at the Sun. On one of two moonwalks, they visited the Surveyor, and removed some parts for return to Earth.
• The mission ended on November 24 with a successful splashdown.

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• STS-12 
• During the Space Shuttle program, several missions were cancelled. Many were cancelled as a result of the Challenger and the Columbia disasters. Many early missions were cancelled due to delays in the development of the shuttle. Others were cancelled because of changes in payload and missions requirements.
• STS-12 was originally scheduled for launch on 30 January 1981. The crew of three were to place the satellites TDRS-C and Anik-C2 into orbit during the 2-day mission. An alternate mission was also planned which replaced the TDRS-C with an Intelsat-V satellite, and would last five days instead of two. TDRS-C was eventually made as the replacement for the destroyed TDRS-B and launched from Discovery on STS-26 in September 1988.
• The crew of STS-12 were, Henry W. Hartsfield, Jr. (Commander); Michael L. Coats (Pilot); and Mission Specialists Richard M. Mullane, Steven A. Hawley and Judith A. Resnik.

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• Majestic 12
• According to UFO conspiracy theory, Majestic 12 (or MJ-12) is the supposed code name of an alleged secret committee of scientists, military leaders, and government officials, formed in 1947 by an executive order by U.S. President Harry S. Truman. The purpose of the committee was to investigate the recovery of a UFO north of Roswell, New Mexico during July 1947.
• Initial indications of such a group’s existence appeared in 1978 in declassified Canadian documents. Another reference to a classified group called “MJ-12” was discovered in 1980, but was later identified to be a hoax. In 1984 a set of documents was discovered in United States archives, which closely resemble real declassified documents, but which the FBI have declared to be “completely bogus”.
• UFO conspiracy theories and the popular media based on them sometimes incorporate Majestic 12.

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In politics

• The 12th President of the United States of America (1849–1850) was Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850). An American military leader, his 40-year military career ended with far-reaching victories in the Mexican–American War. His status as a national hero won him election to the White House despite his vague political beliefs. His top priority as president was preserving the Union, but he died 16 months into his term, before making any progress on the status of slavery, which had been inflaming tensions in Congress.

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• The Twelfth Amendment (Amendment XII) to the United States Constitution provides the procedure for electing the President and Vice President. It replaced Article II, Section 1, Clause 3, which provided the original procedure by which the Electoral College functioned. Problems with the original procedure arose in the elections of 1796 and 1800. The Twelfth Amendment was proposed by the Congress on December 9, 1803, and was ratified by the required number of state legislatures on June 15, 1804.
• The United States of America is divided into twelve Federal Reserve Districts (Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Richmond, Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Dallas, and San Francisco); American paper currency has serial numbers beginning with one of twelve different letters, A through L, representing the Federal Reserve Bank from which the currency originated.

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• There are 12 stars are featured on the Flag of Europe

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• The French department Aveyron is number twelve.
• In Northern Ireland the Twelfth of July is the main day of celebration and commemoration for the Protestant and Unionist community, and a public holiday.

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In sport

• The competition that was founded in 2001 as the Celtic League changed its name in 2011 to Pro12, reflecting its status as a 12-team league after it expanded in 2010 to include teams from Italy.
• The Southern Hemisphere competition now known as Super Rugby was known from 1996 through 2005, an era in which it had 12 teams, as Super 12.
• In both soccer and American football, the number 12 can be a symbolic reference to the fans because of the support they give to the 11 players on the field.
• Texas A&M University reserves the number 12 jersey for a walk-on player who represents the original “12th Man”, a fan who was asked to play when the team’s reserves were low in a college American football game in 1922.
• Bayern Munich, Hammarby, Feyenoord, Atlético Mineiro, Flamengo, Seattle Seahawks, Portsmouth and Cork City do not allow field players to wear the number 12 on their jersey because it is reserved for their supporters.
• The jersey number 12 has been retired by several North American sports teams in honor of past playing greats (or, in one case, a team’s fans):
• In Major League Baseball: the Tampa Bay Rays, for Hall of Famer Wade Boggs; the Toronto Blue Jays, for Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar.

• In the NFL: the Buffalo Bills, for Hall of Famer Jim Kelly; the Miami Dolphins, for Hall of Famer Bob Griese; the New York Jets, for Hall of Famer Joe Namath; the San Francisco 49ers, for John Brodie; the Seattle Seahawks, for their fans (the “12th Man”); the Dallas Cowboys have a policy of not retiring numbers, however, the team has not issued #12 since the retirement of Hall of Famer Roger Staubach; the Pittsburgh Steelers currently have a policy of not retiring numbers, having retired only one number (70) in their earlier history, however, the Steelers have not issued #12 since the retirement of Hall of Famer Terry Bradshaw.

• In the NBA: the New York Knicks, for Dick Barnett; the Utah Jazz, for Hall of Famer John Stockton; the Cincinnati Royals, for Hall of Famer Maurice Stokes, who suffered a career-ending head injury in 1958, the team’s first season in Cincinnati and the franchise continues to honor the number in its current incarnation as the Sacramento Kings.

• In the NHL: he Detroit Red Wings, for Hall of Famer Sid Abel; the Montreal Canadiens, for Hall of Famers Yvan Cournoyer and Dickie Moore; the Vancouver Canucks, for Stan Smyl; the jersey number 12 has also been retired by the men’s basketball program of the University of North Carolina for Phil Ford.

• In Canadian football, 12 is the maximum number of players that can be on the field of play for each team at any time.
• In ten-pin bowling, 12 is the number of strikes needed for a perfect game.
• In curling, the House or the circular scoring area, is 12 feet in diameter.
• In cricket, another sport with eleven players per team, teams may select a “12th man”, who may replace an injured player for the purpose of fielding (but not batting, bowling or keeping wicket).
• In association football, 12 was also the number of teams in the finals of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in its first two editions in 1991 and 1995.

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In books, music, movies and TV

• Books
• ‘Twelfth Night’ is a comedy by William Shakespeare.
• ‘Twelve Angry Men’ by Reginald Rose, was adapted from his own teleplay (see TV below).
• ‘The Twelve’ is a poem by Aleksandr Blok.
• ‘Twelve’ is a novel by Nick McDonell.
• ‘The Twelve Chairs’ is a satirical novel by the Soviet authors Ilf and Petrov.
• ‘Cheaper by the Dozen’ is a 1946 novel by Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey.
• ‘The Twelve Dancing Princesses’ is a folk tale.
• ‘The Aeneid’, an epic poem by Virgil is divided into two halves composed of twelve books.
• ‘Paradise Lost’, an epic poem by John Milton is divided into twelve books perhaps in imitation of the Aeneid.
• In ‘The Hunger Games’, the fictional country of Panem is separated into twelve districts.

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• Music
• Twelve is the number of pitch classes in an octave; the total number of major keys; and the total number of minor keys.
• The twelfth is the interval of an octave and a fifth. Instruments such as the clarinet which behave as a stopped cylindrical pipe overblow at the twelfth.
• The twelve-tone technique (also dodecaphony) is a method of musical composition devised by Arnold Schoenberg. Music using the technique is called twelve-tone music.
• One of the most famous classical music pieces is the 1812 overture by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
• The 12-inch single is a vinyl record format.
• B12 are a British electronic music duo consisting of Mike Golding and Steve Rutter.
• There is a group called ‘Twelve Girls Band’.
• ‘Twelfth Night’ is a progressive rock band.
• ‘12 Play’ is an R. Kelly album.
• ‘The Number 12 Looks Like You’ is a mathcore band.
• ‘Twelve’ is an album by Patti Smith.
• ‘Twelve Deadly Cyns…and Then Some’ is an album by Cyndi Lauper.
• ‘D12’ a rap group also known as the ‘Dirty Dozen’.
• There is a musical group named ‘12 Stones’.
• ‘12’, a Song from Brave Murder Day by Katatonia.
• ‘12’ is a studio album by German singer Herbert Grönemeyer.
• ‘12’ is the 12th studio album by Keller Williams.
• ‘12 Hundred’ is a song by band Mushroomhead of their Savior Sorrow album.
• ‘12’ (“Dodeka” in Greek) is one of the most well-known hits by Anna Vissi.
• ‘Twelve drummers drumming’ is the gift on the twelfth day of Christmas in the carol ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’.
• ‘12:59 Lullaby’ by Bedouin Soundclash.
• ‘Rainy Day Women No. 12 & 35’ by Bob Dylan.
• ‘Little 12 Toes’ by Chavez (band).
• ‘12 Hours’ by Davenport Cabinet.
• ‘12’ by Hot Chip.
• ‘Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses’ by Kathy Mattea.
• ‘Twelve Reasons Why’ by My Life Story.
• ‘Dozen Wicked Words’ by The Longpigs.
• ‘Prelude 12’ by Styx.
• ‘12:51’ by The Strokes.
• ‘12 Steps’ by Violent Femmes.
• ‘The 12th Of September’ by Xavier Rudd.
• ‘12 Fingers’ by Young the Giant.
• ‘12-Bar Original’ by The Beatles.
• Twelve is the number of studio albums ‘The Beatles’ released.

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• Movies
• Movies with the number twelve or its variations in their titles include
• 12
• 12.01
• 12 Angry Men (1957 and 1997)
• Cheaper by the Dozen
• Ocean’s Twelve
• 12 Monkeys
• The Dirty Dozen
• 12 Rounds
• Twelve

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• Television
• The number twelve plays a significant role in the television franchise Battlestar Galactica. The characters come from the Twelve Colonies of Kobol and worship the twelve lords of Kobol. In the re-imagined series, there are also twelve models of the humanoid version of Cylons.
• Twelve Angry Men, the original 1954 live performance on the anthology television series Studio One.
• ‘Number 12 Looks Just Like You’ is an episode of the television show The Twilight Zone.
• Schoolhouse Rock! portrayed an alien child using base-twelve arithmetic in the short ‘Little Twelvetoes’.
• 12 Oz Mouse was an animated television show on Adult Swim.

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In transport

• Lockheed Model 12 Electra Junior
• The Lockheed Model 12 Electra Junior, more commonly known as the Lockheed 12 or L-12, is an eight-seat, six-passenger all-metal twin-engine transport aircraft of the late 1930s designed for use by small airlines, companies, and wealthy private individuals.
• A scaled-down version of the Lockheed Model 10 Electra, the Lockheed 12 was not popular as an airliner but was widely used as a corporate and government transport. Several were also used for testing new aviation technologies.
• Aviator Milo Burcham flew a Lockheed 12A in the 1937 Bendix Trophy Race from Burbank, California to Cleveland, Ohio. This 12A had been modified with extra fuel tanks in the cabin, allowing it to save time by making the entire 2,043-mile (3,288 km) trip non-stop. The 12A came in fifth at an average speed of 184 mph (296 km/h); this was an impressive performance, since the first and fourth-place winners were both privately owned Seversky P-35 fighters.
• Another Lockheed 12A, owned by Republic Oil Company and named The Texan, was modified by aviator Jimmie Mattern for a round-the-world flight attempt. Mattern filled the 12A’s cabin with fuel tanks and removed the cabin windows and door; the crew would enter the aircraft via a cockpit hatch. The aircraft was denied a U.S. permit for the flight following the Earhart incident (she had been flying a Lockheed 10 Electra), however it was pressed into action September 1937 in a long range search effort for Sigizmund Levanevsky who crashed somewhere between the North pole and Barrow, Alaska. “The Texan” was outfitted as a luxury transport afterward, and lost in a hangar fire in January 1938.

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• Hispano-Suiza J12
• The Hispano-Suiza J12 was a luxury automobile made by Hispano-Suiza from 1931 to 1938. It replaced the Hispano-Suiza H6. The J12 was powered by a V12 engine with pushrod-operated overhead valves.
• Hispano-Suiza suspended automobile production in 1938 to concentrate on the manufacture of aircraft engines.

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• Renault 12
• The Renault 12 is a family car produced by French automaker Renault between 1969 and 1980. Available as a saloon (Berline) and estate (Break), it was also produced under license in many countries across the globe into the early 21st century.
• In its first few years the 12 received praise from the European press for its spacious, comfortable interior, its styling, its performance and its low fuel consumption. However it fared worse in the North American press: in a test of the 1974 model, Road & Track was critical of the engine’s “obtrusive” noise, and called the heavy, non-power steering “a serious design flaw”. They also gave it “very poor marks” for the ventilation system.
• Renault 12 production and sales ended in western Europe in 1980, but the model continued to be produced and sold by Renault affiliates elsewhere. The last R12 was produced in 1999 in Turkey, whilst Romanian automaker Dacia continued producing the R12-based 1310 sedan and estate until 2004 and the R12-based Dacia Pick-Up until December 2006.
• In terms of sales the Renault 12 was a successful car, selling 2.5 million units.

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• McLaren M12
• The McLaren M12 was an open-cockpit racing car developed by Bruce McLaren Motor Racing in 1969, solely for the purpose of selling to customers in the Can-Am series.
• The M12 combined elements from two of McLaren’s previous efforts, the M6 series and the M8 series.
• One of the more notable owners of an M12 was Chaparral Cars, who used the McLaren in the early 1969 Can-Am season while their own model’s development had been delayed.

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• BMW E12
• The BMW E12 BMW 5-Series was made between 1972 and 1981. The E12 was the first series to bear the 5 Series name: the ‘5’ denoting BMW’s fifth ‘New Class’ platform. Designed as a replacement for the popular BMW New Class mid-size sedan, the E12 5-Series models were smaller than the large BMW E3 sedan but larger than the two-door 2002 models.
• The E12 was replaced by the BMW E28 5 Series in 1981, although production continued until 1984 in South Africa.

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• Volkswagen W12 Coupe
• The Volkswagen W12 Coupe (also known as the Volkswagen Nardò, with reference to the Nardò Ring vehicle test track, near to the Italian city of Nardò) was a concept car created by Volkswagen Passenger Cars in 1997.
• The car is portrayed in games such as Heat Online, Gran Turismo, and the Test Drive series.
• This car also featured in an April Fools joke as the new Volkswagen 2015 LeVanto.

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• Vector M12
• The Vector M12 was a vehicle designed by parent company Megatech LTD the Vector Motors Corporation, and was the first vehicle produced after the hostile takeover of the company from Jerry Wiegert by the Indonesian company Megatech.
• The vehicle was a rebodied Lamborghini Diablo with a chopper gun fiberglass body set on a lengthened Diablo chassis. It was a loose copy of the Vector AWX-3, which was not released due to the Megatech hostile takeover.
• The M12 was able to accelerate from zero to 60 mph (97 km/h) in 4.8 seconds and had a top speed of 189 mph (304 km/h) and was produced from 1995 to 1999, when production was halted, partly due to slow sales of the cars and alleged mismanagement of the company.
• The average price of the vehicle was $184,000 (USD). Today you can purchase a M12 normally for $65,000 to an astounding $189,000 paid by a purchaser of a purple M12 at Barrett Jackson for a record sale price.

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• Noble M12       
• The Noble M12 is a two-door, two-seat model, originally planned both as a coupe and as a convertible.
• All M12s have been powered by modified bi-turbocharged Ford Duratec V6 engines. The M12 has a full steel roll cage, steel frame, and G.R.P. (fibreglass) composite clam shell body parts.
• These famed “Ferrari killers” are extremely lightweight and stiff. Although looking to be track derived, the M12 performs very well on both road and track, with surprisingly good ride quality, but a rigid feel. This is achieved by having no anti-roll bars on the car. This allows the suspension to be stiff yet comfortable.

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• Ferrari F12 Berlinetta
• The Ferrari F12 berlinetta (also unofficially referred to as the F12 Berlinetta or the F12) is a front mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive grand tourer produced by Italian sports car manufacturer Ferrari. The F12 Berlinetta, introduced to the public at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show, replaces the Ferrari 599 series grand tourers.
• The F12berlinetta was named “The Supercar of the Year 2012” by car magazine Top Gear.

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• Spyker E12 Zagato
• Spyker Cars shareholder and CEO, Victor Muller hinted at a Maserati Quattroporte, Porsche Panamera rival with an eight-cylinder (the E8) or a twelve-cylinder (the E12) engine, but due to problems getting the D8 into production, the idea was ignored until recently when Muller has said he “believes now could be the time to resurrect the saloon.”
• Muller believes it will take about four years from time E8/E12 is revealed to the time it starts production. In March 2011, Muller stated that the production version of the Spyker E8/E12 will use a twelve-cylinder instead of the proposed eight-cylinder engine.

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• V12 engine
• A V12 engine is a V engine with 12 cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of six cylinders, usually but not always at a 60° angle to each other, with all 12 pistons driving a common crankshaft.
• Since each cylinder bank is essentially a straight-6, this configuration has perfect primary and secondary balance no matter which V angle is used and therefore needs no balance shafts. A V12 with two banks of six cylinders angled at 60°, 120° or 180° (with the latter configuration usually referred to as a flat-12) from each other has even firing with power pulses delivered twice as often per revolution as a straight-6.
• This allows for great refinement in a luxury car. In a racing car, the rotating parts can be made much lighter and thus more responsive, since there is no need to use counterweights on the crankshaft as is needed in a 90° V8 and less need for the inertial mass in a flywheel to smooth out the power delivery. In a large displacement, heavy-duty engine, a V12 can run slower than smaller engines, prolonging engine life.

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• W12 engine
• A W12 engine is a twelve cylinder piston internal combustion engine in a W configuration.
• W12 engines are manufactured in two distinct configurations. One configuration uses four rows of three cylinders merged into two ‘cylinder banks’ (two narrow-angle VR6 engine blocks), coupled to a common crankshaft – as in the Volkswagen Group W12. Another uses three banks of four cylinders coupled to a common crankshaft – as in the Napier Lion.

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Other stuff

• There are twelve basic hues in the color wheel; 3 primary colors (red, yellow, blue), 3 secondary colors (orange, green & purple) and 6 tertiary colors (names for these vary, but are intermediates between the primaries and secondaries).
• There are 12 ounces in a troy pound (used for precious metals)
• There are 12 signs of the zodiac.
• In English, twelve is the number of greatest magnitude that has just one syllable.
• There are normally twelve pairs of ribs in the human body.
• The Twelve Tables or Lex Duodecim Tabularum, more informally simply Duodecim Tabulae was the ancient legislation underlying Roman law.
• In the United States, twelve people are appointed to sit on a jury for felony trials in all but four states, and in federal and Washington, D.C. courts. The number of jurors gave the title to the play (and subsequent films) Twelve Angry Men.
• There are 12 inches in a foot.
• Twelve shillings made up one British pound in pre decimal currency.
• There are 12 face cards in a normal card deck.
• Alcoholics Anonymous has 12 steps, 12 traditions and 12 concepts for world service.
• Most calendar systems have twelve months in a year.
• The Western zodiac has twelve signs, as does the Chinese zodiac.
• The Chinese use a 12 year cycle for time-reckoning called Earthly Branches.
• There are twenty-four hours in a day, the hours being numbered from one to twelve for both the ante meridiem (a.m.) half of the day and the post meridiem (p.m.) half of the day. The basic units of time (60 seconds, 60 minutes, 24 hours) can all perfectly divide by twelve.

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Significant Number Factoid Friday – Today The Number Is Sixty-Four 64

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

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Another significant numbers day.

In case you are wondering these numbers are picked quite randomly. Only after it makes itself known does the search start for things associated with it.

Sometimes there is a lot, sometimes not so much. Sixty-four seems to be a well used number so a lot of information below.

If you are into numbers, enjoy.

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The Number Sixty-Four  64

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In religion

• The 64th word of the King James Version of the Bible’s Old Testament Genesis is “light”;
• King David prays for deliverance from his enemies in the 64th Psalm;
• The 64 Dakinis or Yoginis are 8 Mother goddesses each with 8 attendants in India religious traditions; each of the 64 can be further correlated to the currents or winds of the human “etheric” body;
• The Lord Shiva has 64 forms or manifestations.

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In mathematics

• Sixty-four is the square of 8, the cube of 4, and the sixth power of 2;
• Sixty-four is the smallest number with exactly seven divisors;
• Sixty-four is the lowest positive power of two that is adjacent to neither a Mersenne prime nor a Fermat prime;
• Sixty-four  is the sum of Euler’s totient function for the first fourteen integers;
• Sixty-four is also a dodecagonal number and a centered triangular number;
• In base 10, no integer added up to its own digits yields 64, hence it is a self number;
• Sixty-four is a super-perfect number – a number such that s(s(n))=2n.

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• Base64
• Base64 is a group of similar binary-to-text encoding schemes that represent binary data in an ASCII string format by translating it into a radix-64 representation. The term Base64 originates from a specific MIME content transfer encoding.
• Base64 encoding schemes are commonly used when there is a need to encode binary data that needs to be stored and transferred over media that are designed to deal with textual data. This is to ensure that the data remain intact without modification during transport.
• Base64 is commonly used in a number of applications including email via MIME, and storing complex data in XML.

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• Graham’s number
• Graham’s number, named after Ronald Graham, is unimaginably larger than other well-known large numbers such as a googol, googolplex, and even larger than Skewes’ number and Moser’s number.
• The number gained a degree of popular attention when Martin Gardner described it in the “Mathematical Games” section of Scientific American in November 1977, writing that, “In an unpublished proof, Graham has recently established … a bound so vast that it holds the record for the largest number ever used in a serious mathematical proof.” The 1980 Guinness Book of World Records repeated Gardner’s claim, adding to the popular interest in this number.
• Specific integers known to be far larger than Graham’s number have since appeared in many serious mathematical proofs (e.g., in connection with Friedman’s various finite forms of Kruskal’s theorem).

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In Computing

• 64-bit
• In computer architecture, 64-bit computing is the use of processors that have datapath widths, integer size, and memory addresses of 64 bits (eight octets) wide. Also, 64-bit CPU and ALU architectures are those that are based on registers, address buses, or data buses of that size. From the software perspective, 64-bit computing means the use of code with 64-bit virtual memory addresses

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• Commodore 64
• The Commodore 64, commonly called C64, CBM 64 (for Commodore Business Machines), or VIC-64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International.
• Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595.
• Preceded by the Commodore VIC-20 and Commodore PET, the C64 took its name from its 64 kilobytes (65,536 bytes) of RAM, and had favorable sound and graphical specifications when compared to contemporary systems such as the Apple II, at a price that was well below the circa US$ 1200 demanded by Apple.
• For a substantial period (1983–1986), the C64 dominated the market with between 30% and 40% share and 2 million units sold per year, outselling the IBM PC compatibles, Apple Inc. computers, and Atari 8-bit family computers.
• Sam Tramiel, a later Atari president and the son of Commodore’s founder, said in a 1989 interview “When I was at Commodore we were building 400,000 C64s a month for a couple of years.”

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• Dragon 64
• The Dragon 32 and Dragon 64 are home computers that were built in the 1980s. The Dragons are very similar to the TRS-80 Color Computer (CoCo), and were produced for the European market by Dragon Data, Ltd., in Port Talbot, Wales, and for the US market by Tano of New Orleans, Louisiana.
• The model numbers reflect the primary difference between the two machines, which have 32 and 64 kilobytes of RAM, respectively.

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In science

• Sixty-four is the Atomic Number of Gadolinium (Gd), discovered by Jean de Marignac 1880 (Switzerland), and named after the mineral gadolinite;
• Sixty-four is the Atomic Weight of Copper (Cu).
• There are 64 codons in the RNA codon table under genetic code.

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In space

• Messier object M64, is a magnitude 9.0 galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices, also known as the Black Eye Galaxy;
• The New General Catalogue object NGC 64, a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Cetus;
• WOH G64 is a red hypergiant in the Large Magellanic Cloud. With 1540 times the radius of the Sun, it is one of the largest known stars and the largest known in the LMC. The physical parameters are still poorly known due to the distance, visual faintness, several solar masses of shrouding dust, and the possibility of a bright hot companion.

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• STS-64
• STS-64 was a Space Shuttle Discovery mission, launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on 9 September 1994, to perform multiple experiment packages.
• STS-64 marked the first flight of Lidar In-space Technology Experiment (LITE) and first untethered U.S. extravehicular activity (EVA) in 10 years. LITE payload employs lidar, which stands for “light detection and ranging”, a type of optical radar using laser pulses instead of radio waves to study Earth’s atmosphere.
• On day five of the mission, the Shuttle Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for Astronomy-201 (SPARTAN-201) free flyer was released using the Remote Manipulator System arm.
• STS-64 was the first mission to see the use of the new full-pressure Advanced Crew Escape Suit, which eventually replaced the partial-pressure Launch Entry Suit.

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In politics

• Department of State Form DS-64 is the one US Citizens need if they lose or have your passport stolen;
• Department of Labor Chapter 64 regulates the employment of workers with disabilities at special wages;
• In the United States presidential election of 1964, held on Tuesday, November 3, 1964, Democratic candidate and incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson who had come to office less than a year earlier following the assassination of his predecessor, John F. Kennedy, and who had successfully associated himself with Kennedy’s popularity, won 61.1% of the popular vote, the highest won by a candidate since 1820.

• In Chinese the “Six Four Incident” refers to Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

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In sport

• There are 64 teams participating in the NCAA Basketball Tournament;
• In chess or draughts, there are a total of 64 black (dark) and white (light) squares on the game board;
• The Knight’s Tour of a chessboard is a sequence of moves by a knight so that each of the 64 squares is visited only once. The numbers of the knight’s moves form a magic square where each row and column adds up to 260;
• 64 is the name of the premier Russian chess magazine;
• NFL Hall of Famers with jersey #64 include Dave Wilcox, Linebacker (Boise Junior College, Oregon) and 1964-1974 San Francisco 49ers; George Blanda, Quarterback-Kicker, 1949, 1950-58 Chicago Bears, 1950 Baltimore Colts, 1960-66 Houston Oilers, 1967-1975 Oakland Raiders; Joe Delamielleure, Guard, 1973-1979, 1985 Buffalo Bills, 1980-1984 Cleveland Browns; Randall McDaniel, Guard, 1988-1999 Minnesota Vikings, 2000-01 Tampa Bay Buccaneers; Y.A. Tittle, Quarterback, 1948-1950 Baltimore Colts (AAFC/NFL), 1951-1960 San Francisco 49ers, 1961-1964 New York Giants.

• In the National Hockey League, jersey #64 is used by James Robert McGinn IV is a Canadian professional ice hockey player currently playing for the Colorado Avalanche.

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In books, movies, music and TV

• The $64,000 Question is an American game show broadcast from 1955–1958, which became embroiled in the scandals involving TV quiz shows of the day. The $64,000 Challenge (1956–1958) was its popular spin-off show.
• When I’m 64 is a song by John Lennon & Paul McCartney from The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album (1967).

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In militaria

• HMS Vansittart
• HMS Vansittart was an Admiralty modified W class destroyer built for the Royal Navy. She was ordered in January 1918 from William Beardmore & Company with the 13th Order for Destroyers of the Emergency War Program of 1918-19. She was the second Royal Navy ship to carry the name which was first used in 1821 for a hired packet.

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• HMS Beverley (H 64)
• Completed in July 1920 as USS Branch (DD 197) for the US Navy, on 8 Oct, 1940 she was transferred to the Royal Navy and renamed HMS Beverley (H 64).
• On 9 Apr, 1943, during WWII convoy duty in the North Atlantic, HMS Beverley had been seriously damaged in a collision with the British steam merchant Cairnvalona and had taken station in the rear of the convoy. When it was subsequenty attaced by a German U-Boat, U-188, 30 hours later she was hit by torpedos and sunk. HMS Clover (K 134) (Lt P.H. Grieves, RNR) later picked up five survivors and recovered two bodies, but one of the survivors later died on board.

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• HMS Fencer (D64)
• The USS Croatan (CVE-14) (originally AVG-14 then ACV-14) was transferred to the United Kingdom on 20 February 1943 under lend-lease where she served as HMS Fencer (D64). As an anti-submarine warfare carrier, Fencer escorted Atlantic, Russian and African convoys, even participating in a strike on the German battleship Tirpitz before being transferred to the Pacific.
• Following World War II, she returned to the United States 21 December 1946, stricken for disposal on 28 January 1947 and sold into merchant service 30 December as Sydney.
• The ship went through a series of renamings, first to Roma in 1967, then Galaxy Queen in 1970, Lady Dina in 1972 and finally Caribia in 1973 before being scrapped in Spezia in September 1975.

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• HMS Scorpion (D64)
• HMS Scorpion (D64) was a Weapon-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy. Originally named HMS Centaur, the ship was renamed Tomahawk and finally Scorpion (in September 1943) before her launch.
• Scorpion was the only Weapon-class ship fitted with the Limbo depth charge mortar rather than the older Squid.
• In 1953 she took part in the Fleet Review to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

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• HMS Theseus (R64)
• HMS Theseus (R64) was a Colossus-class light fleet aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy, launched on 6 July 1944.
• Theseus was laid down to serve in the Second World War, but was not completed before peace was declared in 1945. She was utilized as a training vessel until the outbreak of the Korean War when she was deployed to Korea, commencing standard carrier operations.
• In 1956, Theseus was used as an emergency commando carrier, along with her sister-ship Ocean, during the Suez Crisis. From November to December, helicopters from Theseus transported troops ashore, as well as evacuating wounded soldiers. Compared to her actions during the Korean War, her role at Suez was relatively quiet. The following year she was placed in reserve. She was subsequently broken up at Inverkeithing in 1962.

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• USS Wisconsin (BB-64)
• The USS Wisconsin (BB-64), “Wisky” or “WisKy”, is an Iowa-class battleship, the second ship of the United States Navy to be named in honor of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. She was launched on 7 December 1943 (the second anniversary of the Pearl Harbor raid).
• During her career, Wisconsin served in the Pacific Theater of World War II, where she shelled Japanese fortifications and screened United States aircraft carriers as they conducted air raids against enemy positions.
• During the Korean War, Wisconsin shelled North Korean targets in support of United Nations and South Korean ground operations, after which she was decommissioned.
• She was reactivated 1 August 1986, modernised and participated in Operation Desert Storm in January and February 1991.
• Wisconsin was last decommissioned in September 1991, having earned a total of six battle stars for service in World War II and Korea, as well as a Navy Unit Commendation for service during the January/February 1991 Gulf War.
• She currently functions as a museum ship operated by Nauticus, The National Maritime Center in Norfolk, Virginia. .

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• USS Constellation (CV-64)
• The USS Constellation (CV-64), a Kitty Hawk–class supercarrier, was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named in honor of the “new constellation of stars” on the flag of the United States and the only naval vessel ever authorized to display red, white, and blue designation numbers.
• One of the fastest ships in the Navy, as proven by her victory during a battlegroup race held in 1985, she was nicknamed “Connie” by her crew and officially as “America’s Flagship”.
• She was launched 8 October 1960 and delivered to the Navy 1 October 1961, and commissioned 27 October 1961, with Captain T. J. Walker in command. At that time, she had cost about US$264.5 million. Constellation was the last U.S. aircraft carrier (as of 2010) to be built at a yard other than Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Company.

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• USS Gettysburg (CG-64)
• The USS Gettysburg (CG-64) is a Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser in the United States Navy, built at the Bath Iron Works in Maine and named for the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War.
• With her guided missiles and rapid-fire cannons, she is capable of facing and defeating threats in the air, on the sea, or ashore, and underneath the sea. She also carries two Seahawk LAMPS multi-purpose helicopters, but mainly for anti-submarine warfare (ASW).
• She is based in Mayport, Florida.

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• U-64
• The first U-64 was a Type U-63 class submarine in the Kaiserliche Marine that served during World War I. She was built in 1916 and served in the Mediterranean Sea.
• On 19 March 1917, while on patrol in the Tyrrhenian Sea, U-64 torpedoed and sank the French battleship Danton 30 miles south of Sardinia, with the loss of 296 men. She herself was lost on 17 June 1918.

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• In 1937 another German submarine U-64, a Type IXB U-boat of the Nazi German Kriegsmarine, was ordered in July 1937 and launched in September 1939.
• This U-64 had a very short career and sank no enemy vessels. Having left her home port of Wilhelmshaven for her first war patrol on 6 April 1940, she was intercepted by Allied aircraft seven days later off the coast of Norway during the invasion of that country and was sunk by a bomb from a Fairey Swordfish aircraft of HMS Warspite. Of her crew of 46, eight men died and 38 escaped from the sinking submarine.

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• K-64
• The K-64 Designation was first given to the first Alfa Class Submarine, launched on April 22, 1969.
• In 1972, the submarine suffered a major reactor problem in the form of a leak of liquid metal coolant. The superheated metal solidified on contact with the colder outside air, freezing and damaging internal components of the reactor. She was removed from service and towed to Severodvinsk.
• The K-64 designation was again given to a Delta IV class submarine launched on February 2, 1986 as the fourth ship of its class, entered in service in the Russian Northern Fleet. The sub was laid down in December 1982 and was built at Sevmash plant in Severodvinsk.
• This ship is still in active service.

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• P-64
• P-64 was the designation assigned by the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) to the North American Aviation NA-68 fighter, an upgraded variant of the NA-50 developed during the late 1930s.
• Six NA-68s ordered by the Royal Thai Air Force were seized before export by the US government in 1941, after the Franco-Thai War and growing ties between Thailand and the Empire of Japan. These aircraft were used by the USAAC as unarmed fighter trainers.
• Seven NA-50s were purchased by the Peruvian Air Force, which nicknamed it Torito (“Little Bull”). The Peruvian NA-50s subsequently saw action during the Ecuadorian-Peruvian War of 1941.

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• The Grumman G-64/111 Albatross
• The Albatross is easily the largest of Grumman’s series of utility amphibians, and was the only one originally developed specifically for military service.
• The Albatross resulted from a late 1940s US Navy requirement for a general purpose amphibious transport. The first Albatross prototype flew for the first time on October 24 1947, with more than 400 production HU-16s subsequently delivered to the US Navy, US Coast Guard and 12 other nations. Military Albatross missions included general reconnaissance, maritime patrol, anti submarine warfare (in which role it could be armed with torpedoes and depth charges) and search and rescue.
• In the late 1970s, Grumman and major US flying boat operator Resorts International began work on a program to convert the Albatross for civil airline service. The conversion incorporated numerous changes to the basic Albatross, including a 28 seat passenger interior, a galley and provision for a flight attendant, upgraded avionics and other improved systems.
• In all only 13 aircraft were converted, 12 for Resorts International, and 1 for Conoco Oil/Pelita which operated from Singapore. Several of these are still active, together with ex military examples.

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• AH-64 Apache
• The Boeing AH-64 Apache is a four-blade, twin-engine attack helicopter with a tailwheel-type landing gear arrangement, and a tandem cockpit for a two-man crew.
• Originally, the Apache started life as the Model 77 developed by Hughes Helicopters for the United States Army’s Advanced Attack Helicopter program to replace the AH-1 Cobra, and was first flown on 30 September 1975.
• The AH-64 was introduced to U.S. Army service in April 1986.
• The AH-64 Apache features a nose-mounted sensor suite for target acquisition and night vision systems; is armed with a 30-millimeter (1.2 in) M230 Chain Gun carried between the main landing gear, under the aircraft’s forward fuselage; and has four hardpoints mounted on stub-wing pylons, typically carrying a mixture of AGM-114 Hellfire missiles and Hydra 70 rocket pods. The AH-64 has a large amount of systems redundancy to improve combat survivability.
• The first production AH-64D Apache Longbow, an upgraded version of the original Apache, was delivered to the Army in March 1997. Production has been continued by Boeing Defense, Space & Security; over 1,000 AH-64s have been produced to date.
• The U.S. Army is the primary operator of the AH-64; it has also become the primary attack helicopter of multiple nations, including Greece, Japan, Israel, the Netherlands and Singapore; as well as being produced under license in the United Kingdom as the AgustaWestland Apache. U.S. AH-64s have served in conflicts in Panama, the Persian Gulf, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Israel used the Apache in its military conflicts in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip; both British and U.S. Apaches have seen deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq.

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• Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane
• The Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane is an American twin-engine heavy-lift helicopter, the civil version of the United States Army’s CH-54 Tarhe. The S-64 Aircrane is the current production version, manufactured by the Erickson Air-Crane company.
• Erickson Air-Crane purchased the type certificate and manufacturing rights in 1992 and since that date they have become the manufacturer and world’s largest operator of S-64 Aircranes. The Aircrane can be fitted with a 2,650-gallon (~10,000 litre) fixed retardant tank to assist in the control of bush fires, and it has proved itself admirably in this role.
• Erickson is manufacturing new S-64s, as well as remanufacturing existing CH-54s, with each being assigned an individual name, the best-known being “Elvis”, used in fighting fires in Australia alongside “The Incredible Hulk” and “Isabelle”.
• Other operators, such as Siller Brothers, have followed with their Sikorsky S-64E, Andy’s Pride. The Erickson S-64E nicknamed “Olga” was used to lift the top section of the CN Tower into place in Toronto, Canada.
• The S-64 is the first helicopter built with a rear-facing pilot’s seat—this allows the pilot to watch exactly where the load is being placed as he’s flying the helicopter. The feature came in handy in 1993, when an S-64 removed and replaced the Statue of Freedom from the US Capitol building during a renovation. When transporting a big load like that, the S-64 uses an anti-rotation rigging system that prevents the aircraft from twisting and swaying.

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• T-64
• The T-64 is a Soviet main battle tank, introduced in the early 1960s. It was a more advanced counterpart to the T-62: the T-64 served tank divisions, while the T-62 supported infantry in motor rifle divisions. Although the T-62 and the famed T-72 would see much wider use and generally more development, it was the T-64 that formed the basis of more modern Soviet tank designs like the T-80.

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• W64 nuclear warhead
• The W64 nuclear warhead was the Los Alamos Laboratory’s entry into a brief competition between Lawrence Livermore Laboratory and Los Alamos to design an “enhanced-radiation” nuclear warhead (i.e., a “neutron bomb”) for the United States Army’s MGM-52 Lance tactical surface-to-surface missile.
• The Los Alamos design, the W64, was canceled in September 1964 in favor of Livermore’s W63. In November 1966, the W63 was canceled in favor of the W70, the model that finally entered production.

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• L64
• The L64 was an intermediate calibre British bullpup layout prototype assault rifle developed in the 1970s. The British Army had considered bullpup designs with intermediate calibre rounds in the 1950s, and officially adopted one of these as .280 British in 1951 in the EM-2 and Taden gun. However, US intransigence during NATO standardization efforts, and Winston Churchill’s interest in standards above all, led to the adoption of the significantly more powerful 7.62×51mm NATO round and the British and Canadian armies adopted the L1A1 SLR, a licensed version of the FN FAL, itself originally designed for the .280.
• In the late 1960s a new L64/65 “Individual Weapon” was developed, outwardly similar to the earlier EM-2, but adopted a firing mechanism very similar to ArmaLite’s latest AR-18 design. The first examples were available in 1972.
• By 1976, NATO was ready to standardize on a small calibre round, and testing of the various rounds head-to-head started in 1977. As designed, the British round out-performed the standard US 5.56 mm. However Fabrique Nationale’s entry based on the 5.56 mm, the “SS-109” performed as well as the British cartridge. In the end it was selected largely due to its similarity with existing US ammunition.
• The L64 pattern was later developed into the SA80 family of weapons, which entered service with the UK in the 1980s.

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• P-64 Pistol
• The P-64 is a Polish 9mm semi-automatic pistol designed to fire the 9x18mm Makarov cartridge. The pistol was developed in the late 1950s at the Institute for Artillery Research, which later became the Military Institute of Armament Technology.

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In other fields

• Cities situated on longtitude 64 degree west are:  Charlotte Amalie,  US Virgin Islands; Hamilton,  Bermuda; Road Town,  British Virgin Islands; and Córdoba, Argentina.
• Cities situated on latitude 64 north are:  Fairbanks, Alaska; Skellefteå, Sweden; Anadyr and Arkhangelsk, Russia; Nuuk (Godthåb), Greenland; and Reykjavík, Iceland.
• There are 64 gems in total number in a standard Bejeweled game board.
• 64 is the code for international direct dial calls to New Zealand.
• There are 64 Braille characters in the old 6-dot system.
• Since 1996, the number 64 has been an abbreviation or slang for Nintendo 64 (though N64 is more common) along with the games Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64 and more.

• 64 is the maximum number of strokes in any Chinese character.
• There are 64 hexagrams in the I Ching.
• There are 64 sexual positions in the Kama Sutra.
• There are 64 demons in the Dictionnaire Infernal.
• There are 64 classical arts listed in many Indian scriptures. They include: singing, dancing, painting, poetry, playing cards, making arguments, making flower garlands, etc.
• The 64th French department is Pyrénées-Atlantiques.
• Unsurprisingly it is the number of crayons in the popular Crayola 64 pack.
• 64 is the maximum stack size in the popular game Minecraft.
• 64 (dog) is a character in the Donald Duck comics universe.
• Number of golden disks in the myth of the Tower of Hanoi.
• The S64-1.25 MW has a well-suited ratio of rotor diameter to generator for most sites in a medium wind speed regime. The wind turbine concept is based on robust design and is efficiently handled by the Suzlon controller. These technologies are all well-known in the wind power industry and have proven themselves over time.

• PARALOID B-64 solid grade acrylic resin provides an outstanding combination of hardness, flexibility, and adhesion to various substrates. This general-purpose resin permits wider latitude in formulating in solvents that are suitable for specific applications.
• Group f/64 was a group of seven 20th century San Francisco photographers who shared a common photographic style characterized by sharp-focused and carefully framed images seen through a particularly Western (U.S.) viewpoint. In part, they formed in opposition to the Pictorialist photographic style that had dominated much of the early 20th century, but moreover they wanted to promote a new Modernist aesthetic that was based on precisely exposed images of natural forms and found objects.
• 64 is the slang term referring to a 1964 Chevrolet Impala, often configured as a lowrider, a popular subject among early-90’s gangsta rap.

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Significant Number Factoid Friday – Today The Number Is Eighty-Four 84

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

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Time for another significant number factoid.

Today the number is 84.

As usual there is a lot more to it than you might have thought.

If you are into numbers, facts, trivia, or you just like the number 84 then this is for you.

Enjoy.

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In religion

• 84 occurs in the Bible 2 times and once as part of other numbers: — Luke, 2.37 and Nehemiah, 11.18
• 84th Book of Enoch describes the Dream Visions told to Methuselah.

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In Mathematics

• 84 is the sum of the first seven triangular numbers (making it a tetrahedral number), as well as the sum of a twin prime (41 + 43).
• You can count the number 84 in two different ways in this figure. There are 84 diamond-shaped tiles to make this 2-dimensional pattern. Or you can build a 3-dimensional pyramid with 84 blocks.

 

• A hepteract is a seven-dimensional hypercube with 84 penteract 5-faces.
• The Greek-based numeric prefix octacontatetra- means 84.
• The Latin-based numeric prefix quattuoroctoginta- means 84.
• The Roman numeral for 84 is LXXXIV.

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In Science

• 84 is the Atomic Weight of Krypton, a noble gas and is present in the air at about 1 ppm. The atmosphere of Mars contains a little (about 0.3 ppm) of krypton. It is characterized by its brilliant green and orange spectral lines.

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• 84 is the Atomic Number of Polonium, discovered in 1898 by Marie and Pierre Curie. It is a silvery metal, that has more isotopes than any other element, all of which are radioactive. Polonium has been found in tobacco as a contaminant and in uranium ores.
• Polonium has been used as an assassin’s weapon, notably, in the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, a Russian dissident, in 2006. According to Prof. Nick Priest of Middlesex University, an environmental toxicologist and radiation expert, speaking on Sky News on December 2, Litvinenko was probably the first person ever to die of the acute a-radiation effects of 210Po.

• It has also been suggested that Irène Joliot-Curie was the first person to die from the radiation effects of polonium. She was accidentally exposed to polonium in 1946 when a sealed capsule of the element exploded on her laboratory bench. In 1956 she died from leukemia.
• According to the book The Bomb in the Basement, several death cases in Israel during 1957–1969 were caused by 210Po. A leak was discovered at a Weizmann Institute laboratory in 1957. Traces of 210Po were found on the hands of professor Dror Sadeh, a physicist who researched radioactive materials. Medical tests indicated no harm, but the tests did not include bone marrow. Sadeh died from cancer. One of his students died of leukemia, and two colleagues died after a few years, both from cancer. The issue was investigated secretly, and there was never any formal admission that a connection between the leak and the deaths had existed.
• Abnormally high concentrations of 210Po have been detected in July 2012 in clothes and personal belongings of the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who died in 2004 of uncertain causes. However, the spokesman for the Institut de Radiophysique in Lausanne, Switzerland, where those items were analyzed, stressed that the “clinical symptoms described in Arafat’s medical reports were not consistent with polonium-210 and that conclusions could not be drawn as to whether the Palestinian leader was poisoned or not”, and that “the only way to confirm the findings would be to exhume Arafat’s body to test it for polonium-210.” On 27 November 2012 Arafat’s body was exhumed and samples were taken for separate analysis by experts from France, Switzerland and Russia. Results are expected by April 2013.

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In space

• Messier object M84 is situated in the heavily populated inner core of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. It was discovered and cataloged by Charles Messier on March 18, 1781 when he also cataloged 7 more nebulous objects in the same celestial region. M84 contains a central machine which ejects two small but conspicuous jets, which can be seen in the radio light.

• This object was also target of a 1997 investigation of M84 by the Hubble Space Telescope, shortly after its second service mission (STS-82); it was found that the nucleus of M84 contains a massive central object of 300 million solar masses, concentrated in less than 26 light years from the galaxy’s center. M84 is 60,000 light years away from the Earth.
• The planet Uranus takes 84.01 years to orbit the Sun.

• Asteroid 84 Klio was discovered on August 25, 1865 by Robert Luther at Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. It has a period of 3 years, 230 days and diameter of 59 miles. Klio [Clio] is one of the 9 Muses of Greco-Roman mythology, daughter of Hermes & Mnemosyne, Klio is the Muse of history.

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In sport

• Baseball’s 84th World Series (1987): Minnesota Twins defeats St. Louis Cardinals 4-3 Minnesota beats St. Louis at their Metrodome in Games 1 & 2 by scores of 10-1 & 8-4.
• Jerry Porter, wide receiver of the Oakland Raiders (since 2000) wears uniform #84. Started all 16 games (2004) at WR and set new career highs in receptions (68) and receiving yards (998) and tied a career high with nine touchdown catches.

Jerry Porter, wide receiver of the Oakland Raiders

• Magic Johnson of the L.A. Lakers holds the record for the most assists made— 84, in a 6-game NBA Finals Series (1985)

Magic Johnson of the L.A. Lakers

• Irving Fryar, Andre Rison, Mark Clayton, & Tommy McDonald are tied for 13th place with 84 career receiving touchdowns. Fryar is ranked 6th with 851 receptions & Rison 15th with 743 receptions in the NFL at the start of the 2004 season. (Receiving TDs Leaders).
• Randy Moss of the San Francisco 49ers wears number 84.
• 84th Wimbledon Mens Tennis: John Newcombe beats Ken Rosewall (5-7, 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1) on July 4, 1970.

John Newcombe

• 84th Wimbledon Womens Tennis: Virginia Wade beats Betty Stove (4-6, 6-3, 6-1) on July 1, 1977.
• 84th Kentucky Derby was won by Tim Tam in 2:05 with Jockey Ismael Valenzuela aboard (May 3, 1958).
• 84th Preakness Stakes was won by Tim Tam in 1:57.2 with Jockey Ismael Valenzuela aboard (May 17, 1958).
• 84th Belmont Stakes was won by One Count in 2:30.2 with Jockey Eddie Arcaro aboard (June 7, 1952).
• 84th U.S. Golf Open: Fuzzy Zoeller shoots a 276 at Winged Foot Golf Course, NY (June 18, 1984)

• Women’s 100-Meters High Hurdles: height of the hurdle is 84 centimeters.
• Olympics Gold in Men’s Hammer Throw: 1988 Sergei Litvinov, USSR, 84.80 meters
• Nascar # 84 Toyota Camry, driven by A.J. Allmendinger.

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In books, music & movies

• 84 Charing Cross Road is a book about bibliophilia, containing 20 years of correspondences between a New York writer Helene Hanff and the London bookseller Frank Doel of Marks & Co. The book was originally published by Grossman Publishers, New York (1970) and reissued by Penguin, NY (1990) with an introduction by Anne Bancroft. A film of the same name was released in 1987 starring Anne Bancroft as Helen Hanff, with Anthony Hopkins as Frank P. Doel and Judi Dench as his wife, Mrs. Nora Doel.

• George Orwell wrote the classic book Nineteen Eighty-Four. The first edition of this novel was published by Secker & Warburg, London, England, in 1949. 

• 84 Charlie Mopic is a 1989 film written & directed by Patrick Sheane Duncan. It is a low-budget Vietnam drama, shot entirely in hand-held documentary style, in which a camera team follows an Army unit in pursuit of ‘Charlie’. Duncan, a Vietnam veteran who served as an infantryman for 13 months during 1968-69, shot this film in the hills outside Los Angeles using Super 16mm film stock, which was later blown up to 35 mm for theatrical release. The movie’s producing company itself is called ’84 Charlie MoPic’.

• Chapter 84 of Franklin Merell-Wolff’s Pathways through to Space (1936) is a poem titled “Nirvana”.
• KKNX Radio 84 in Eugene, Oregon
• The John Larroquette Show ran on NBC from 1993 to 1996 for 84 episodes
• The B-Side to “Up All Night” (Take That song)

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In air, sea and militaria

• USS Constitution
• The USS Constitution is one of the first six frigates of the U.S. Navy, built by the Naval Act of 1794. These frigates were designed by Joshua Humphreys who designed them to be the major vessels of the young U.S. Navy. For this reason, the Constitution and the others were designed and built bigger, stronger and better armed than the rest of the frigates of the period.
• Initially she was commissioned to provide protection for merchant ships of the United States during the Quasi-War with France, and fight the Barbary Pirates of Tripoli during the War. However, the Constitution is most famous for her actions during the War of 1812 between the United States and Britain, when she captured numerous merchant ships and defeated five warships from Britain: HMS Guerriere, HMS Java, HMS Pictou, HMS Cyane and HMS Levant.
• In the battle with Guerriere she earned the nickname “Old Ironsides” and the public respect and affection that often saved her from being dismantled. This frigate has actively served the United States through the years, and either as flagship in the Mediterranean squadrons and Africa, sailed around the world in 1840. During the Civil War she served as a training ship for the Naval Academy.
• Nowadays Constitution’s mission is to promote understanding of the role of the Navy in times of war as in time of peace through educational outreach, historical demonstrations and active participation in public events. This ship is active, and as such, its crew of 60 officers and sailors members, participates in ceremonies, educational programs and special events while keeping the ship open to visitors year round offering free tours. All personnel assigned is an active member of the Navy and the allocation to this crew is considered a special duty. Traditionally, the command of the ship is assigned to a Navy commander.
• She is to date the oldest ship still afloat and is active worldwide.

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• USS Bulkeley (DDG-84)
• USS Bulkeley (DDG-84) is an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer in the United States Navy. She was named after Vice Admiral John D. Bulkeley, who was a World War II Medal of Honor recipient.
• Bulkeley was laid down on 10 May 1999 by Ingalls Shipbuilding and launched on 21 June 2000 in Pascagoula, Mississippi. She was commissioned on 8 December 2001 and is currently homeported at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia.
• In February 2011, the Bulkeley was involved in a mission to rescue four American citizens from the yacht Quest which was attacked by Somali pirates.
• On 5 March 2011, Bulkeley was involved in rescuing a Japanese oil tanker, MV Guanabara, from Somali pirates while on duty with Combined Task Force 151 off the coast of Oman. Three of the pirates were tried and convicted in Japan, the fourth was turned over to juvenile authorities, as it was determined that he was a minor.
• On 16 May 2011 the Bulkeley responded to a mayday call from the Panamanian flagged very large crude carrier Artemis Glory by dispatching a Blackhawk helicopter to its position. Seeing that a piratical skiff carrying four men was firing upon the Artemis Glory, the Blackhawk engaged the skiff. After killing its four crewmembers, the helicopter withdrew without any casualties to its own crewmembers or that of the Artemis Glory.
• The ship returned to Norfolk on 15 July 2011. During its deployment, it had participated in operations which had captured 75 Somali pirates and had missile strikes by its carrier strike group against the Libyan government.

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• USS Shamrock Bay (CVE-84)
• USS Shamrock Bay (CVE-84) was a Casablanca-class escort carrier of the United States Navy. She was laid down with the hull code ACV-84 on 15 March 1943 by the Kaiser Co., Vancouver, Washington, under a Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 1121); re-designated CVE-84 on 10 June 1943; launched on 4 February 1944; sponsored by Mrs. James R. Dudley; and commissioned on 15 March 1944, Captain Frank T. Ward, Jr., in command.

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• No. 84 Squadron
• No. 84 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was formed on 7 January 1917 and moved to France in September 1917. It flew the SE.5 over the Western front, at one time based in Bertangles, France until it returned to the UK in August 1919. The squadron was disbanded on 30 January 1920. Its aces included Walter A. Southey.
• The squadron was reformed on 13 August 1920 at Baghdad in Iraq, moving to Shaibah in September, where it remained for the next 20 years. Its initial equipment was DH.9As (until January 1929) and these were replaced by Wapitis (beginning October 1928), Vincents (December 1934) and Blenheims Mk.Is ( February 1939), before moving to Egypt in September 1940. It later operated in Greece, Iraq, and the Western Desert before moving briefly to the Far East. No. 84 Squadron flew the Vultee Vengeance dive bomber from Assam in North-East India but, contrary to some reports, not the Commonwealth Boomerang fighter from New Guinea during World War II (this was done by No. 84 Squadron RAAF). The squadron re-equipped with the Mosquito in February 1945 and in September 1945 with the Bristol Beaufighter. In 1949 No. 84 Squadron flew Bristol Brigands during Operation Firedog.
• The squadron was disbanded again on 20 February 1953, but 204 Squadron was renumbered to No. 84 Squadron on the same day. The squadron was the transport squadron for the RAF in the Middle East till 1971. Its Vickers Valetta flight was detached to become No. 233 Squadron RAF on 1 September 1960 at RAF Khormaksar to provide general transport for the British Army in the Aden Protectorate. The squadron was disbanded yet again at Muharraq on 31 October 1971.
• The squadron was reformed on 17 January 1972 from 1563 Flt and a detachment from 230Sqn with Westland Whirlwind HAR.10s at RAF Akrotiri to aid UN operations and operate search and rescue. It later (March 1982) replaced the Whirlwind with the Westland Wessex HC.2 and later still (June 1984) with the Westland Wessex HU.5C. It was the last squadron to use the Westland Wessex.
• Since January 2003 the squadron has been assigned to British Forces Cyprus at RAF Akrotiri in the search and rescue role using the Bell Griffin HAR2. The helicopters are leased from and maintained by a civilian company. 84 Squadron aircraft are also used for UN duties in maintaining the buffer zone separating Cypriot and Turkish forces. In recognition of this role the aircraft are always unarmed and carry a light blue band around their tail, matching the blue berets of UN peacekeepers.
• 84 Squadron is the only serving squadron never to have been based in the United Kingdom.

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• Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate
• The Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate was the result of the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service’s search for an aircraft that was a combination of their own agile Ki-43 Hayabusa and their fast Ki-44 Shoki that could compete with newest allied designs.
• The Ki-84 Hayate (“Gale”) or the Army Type 4 Fighter which was it’s official IJA designation. Hayate was capable of matching the best allied aircraft in the Pacific theater and with its powerful armament to bring down any allied bomber.
• It was numerically the most important fighter serving with the Japanese Army Air Force (JAAF) during the last year of the Pacific War, and was probably the best Japanese fighter aircraft to see large-scale operation during this period of the war. The Hayate was fully the equal of even the most advanced Allied fighters which opposed it, and was often their superior in many important respects. It was well armed and armoured, was fast, and was very manoeuvrable. Although it was generally outnumbered by Allied fighters which opposed it, it nevertheless gave a good account of itself in battles over the Philippines, over Okinawa, and over the Japanese home islands.

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• PS-84
• The Lisunov Li-2, originally designated PS-84 (NATO reporting name “Cab”), was a license-built version of the Douglas DC-3. It was produced by Factory #84 in Moscow-Khimki and, after evacuation in 1941, at TAPO in Tashkent. The project was directed by aeronautical engineer Boris Pavlovich Lisunov.
• Original passenger airliner, equipped with 14-28 seats. Somewhat smaller span and higher empty weight, and it was also equipped with lower-powered engines compared to the DC-3. The cargo door was also transposed to the right side of the fuselage.

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• de Havilland Dragon
• The de Havilland DH.84 Dragon was a successful small commercial aircraft designed and built by the de Havilland company.
• DH.84M Dragon : Military transport version. The DH.84M was armed with two machine guns, and it could carry up to sixteen 20 lb (9 kg) bombs. Exported to Denmark, Iraq and Portugal.

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• F-84 “Thunderjet”
• Republic Aviation Corporation, Long Island, New York, built P-84 Thunderjets in the 1940s. The Thunderjets were the last of the subsonic straight-wing fighter-bombers to see operational service. They were the aircraft with which flight-refueling techniques for fighters were developed. The first fifteen P-84 production aircraft were fitted with Allison J35A-15 engines and designated YF-84As.
• F-84 “Thunderjet” was the USAF’s first post-war fighter, making its initial flight on February 26, 1946. Gaining its greatest renown during the Korean War, it was used primarily for low-level interdiction missions. The F-84 attacked enemy railroads, bridges, supply depots and troop concentrations with bombs, rockets and napalm. Its maximum speed was 620 mph.

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• Republic XF-84H
• The Republic XF-84H “Thunderscreech” was an experimental turboprop aircraft derived from the F-84F Thunderstreak. Powered by a turbine engine that was mated to a supersonic propeller, the XF-84H had the potential of setting the unofficial air speed record for propeller-driven aircraft, but was unable to overcome teething aerodynamic deficiencies, resulting in the cancellation of the program.

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• Canadair CL-84 “Dynavert”
• The Canadair CL-84 “Dynavert”, designated by the Canadian Forces as the CX-131, was a V/STOL turbine tiltwing monoplane designed and manufactured by Canadair between 1964 and 1972. Only four of these experimental aircraft were built with three entering flight testing. Two of the CL-84s crashed due to mechanical failures, but no loss of life occurred as a result of these accidents. Despite the fact that the CL-84 was very successful in the experimental and operational trials carried out between 1972 and 1974, no production contracts resulted.

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• Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 84 (HSC-84)
• Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 84 (HSC-84) “Red Wolves” is a helicopter squadron of the United States Navy Reserve. Along with the “Firehawks” of HSC-85, the “Red Wolves” are one of only two squadrons in the U.S. Navy dedicated to supporting Navy SEAL and SWCC Teams, and Combat Search & Rescue. They currently operate eight HH-60H Rescue Hawks organized into four independent, two aircraft detachments that can deploy anywhere in the world within 72 hours of notice.

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• Calraith Rodgers
• Calraith Rodgers (1879-1912) was the first pilot to make the flight across the continental United States in 84 days. He purchased a Wright Model EX biplane, christened it the Vin Fiz, and on Sept. 17, 1911, he took off from Sheepshead Bay on Long Island, New York. Despite mechanical problems and dozens of minor incidents, Rodgers landed at Long Beach, California on Dec. 10, 1911 after flying 4231 miles in 84 days. A crowd of 50,000 cheered him when he landed.

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• AGM-84 Harpoon
• AGM-84 Harpoon is a U.S. Air-to-surface anti-ship missile. It provides the Air Force & Navy with a common missile for air, ship, and submarine launches. Built by Boeing in 1977, it has a range of 60 nautical miles with speed of 855 km/hr.

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• T-84 Main Battle Tank
• The T-84 Main Battle Tank is a Ukrainian development of the Soviet T-80 main battle tank, first built in 1993. Length= 9.72 m, Width=3.56 m, Weight= 48 tons, Speed= 70 km/hr.
• This main battle tank’s development works started in Charkov Machine-Building Plant’s Design Bureau in the late 80-ties. The T-84 is an improved modification of the T-80UD Main Battle Tank.
• After the breakup of the Soviet Union designers faced technical and supply problems. However by the help of Ukrainian Ministry of Machine-Building and Military-Production corpse there were made great preparation works to produce all parts of the new tank indigenously.
• The T-84 Main Battle Tank was publicly presented in United Arabian Emirates in 1995 during international armament exhibition. The new tank called interest in the Pakistan Army and after a long negotiations there was made an agreement to sell 320 T-84 Main Battle Tanks for Pakistan.

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• M-84
• The M-84 is a main battle tank from the former Yugoslavia .
• In the 1970s, the Yugoslav army decided to develop its own battle tanks and produce. Due to lack of experience of the Yugoslav military industry in tank, it was decided to use the time very advanced Soviet tank T-72 as a base. The rights of the licensed acquired in 1979 by the Soviet Union. Codenamed Kapela was in the armor wrought Ðuro Ðakovic in Slavonski Brod (Croatia) started production. The first prototype was completed in 1983, and mass production began 1984.  Until the outbreak of war in Yugoslavia over 500 pieces for the Yugoslav army were produced. The battle tank M-84 presented a significant improvement of the overall T-72 represents in the following years made more combat performance upgrades and modernizations in different versions.

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• Z-84
• The Z-84 again replaced the previous Star SMGs in service, starting in the mid 1980s. The theory was to acquire a gun in 9 mm Parabellum, to match their pistols (and the NATO countries finally). It was offered on the commercial market in 9 mm Largo, but none seem to have been made.
• The Spanish Army, Air Force and Marines supposedly mostly got out of issuing SMGs around the time this emerged — much like the rest of the world — due to the prevalence of lightweight, select-fire rifles. Unlike the previous replacement cycles, therefore, the Z-70B is still in widespread service for those who are issued SMGs (see the sailors at the top of the page). The Z84 is employed by some Guardia, Police and Military units. Aside from general use (such as the boarding party sailors below), in a recent Small Arms Review article, Julio Montes says:
• An interesting weapon in the hands of these naval commandos [the UEBC and UOE] is the locally made Star Z-84… It has proved very efficient and reliable even after being submerged and beat up for longer periods of time. The ever-present MP5 is also found.

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• Mauser Gewehr 71/84
• On December 2, 1871, the Mauser Infantry Rifle Model 71, was officially adopted by the Prussian government, thus becoming the first bolt-action metallic cartridge rifle to enter German military service.
• The original design single-shot was updated in 1884, refinements including an 8-round tubular magazine designed by Alfred von Kropatschek, making this Germany’s first repeating rifle. This version was designated the Gewehr 71/84 and was officially adopted by the army of Kaiser Wilhelm I on January 31, 1884.
• In the film The Last Samurai the Japanese Imperial Army carries German bolt-action Mauser M1871/84 rifles, in spite of the fact they were supposedly being armed by the U.S. The 1884 models were altered in appearance by film makers to resemble the more period accurate 1871 models.

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• Carl Gustav Recoiles Rifle
• The Carl Gustav (also Carl-Gustaf and M2CG; pronounced “Carl Gustaf”) is the common name for the 84 mm man-portable reusable multi-role recoilless rifle produced by Saab Bofors Dynamics (formerly Bofors Anti-Armour AB) in Sweden.
• The first prototype of the Carl Gustaf was produced in 1946, and while similar weapons of the era have generally disappeared, the Carl Gustaf remains in widespread use today.
• British troops refer to it as the Charlie G, while Canadian troops often refer to it as the 84, Carl G or Carlo. In U.S. military service it is known as the M3 Multi-role Anti-armor Anti-tank Weapon System (MAAWS) or Ranger Antitank Weapons System (RAWS), but is often called the Gustav or the Goose or simply the Carl Johnson by U.S. soldiers. In Australia it is irreverently known as Charlie Gusto or Charlie Gutsache (guts ache, slang for stomach pain). In its country of origin it is officially named Grg m/48 (Granatgevär or grenade rifle, model 48).
• In recent years, the weapon has found new life in a variety of roles. The British Special Air Service, United States Special Forces and United States Army Rangers use M3s in bunker-busting and anti-vehicle roles, while the German Bundeswehr maintains a small number of M2s for battlefield illumination. Many armies continue to use it as a viable anti-armor weapon, especially against 1950s- and 1960s-era tanks and other armored vehicles still in use worldwide.
• In a well-documented incident during the Falklands War, a Royal Marine attacked an Argentinian corvette (ARA Guerrico) using a Carl Gustav.
• The Carl Gustav was used against Taliban defensive fortifications by soldiers of Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry in operations in Afghanistan. They developed a new system for firing at night in which a spotter with a night-scope fires tracer ammunition to mark the target for the Carl Gustav gunner.[citation needed]
• Carl Gustav launchers were used by Free Libyan Army during the Libyan civil war in 2011; the weapons being used were either captured or provided by defecting members of the Libyan Army.

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• M84 Škorpion vz. 61
• The Škorpion vz. 61 is a Czechoslovak 7.65 mm submachine gun developed in 1959 by Miroslav Rybár (1924–1970) and produced under the official designation Samopal vzor 61 (“submachine gun model 1961”) by the Ceská zbrojovka arms factory in Uherský Brod.
• Although it was developed for use with security forces and special forces, the weapon was also accepted into service with the Czechoslovak Army, as a personal sidearm for lower-ranking army staff, vehicle drivers, armored vehicle personnel and special forces. Currently the weapon is in use with the armed forces of several countries as a sidearm.
• The Škorpion was also license-built in Yugoslavia, designated M84. It features a synthetic pistol grip compared to the original version. A civilian, semi-automatic version was also produced, known as the M84A, also available in .380 ACP (9×17mm Short).

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Other stuff

• Cities located at 84o longitude: Atlanta, Georgia; Cincinnati, Ohio; Knoxville, Tennessee; Agraharam, India; Vamsadhara River, India; San Jose, Costa Rica
• 84 is the code for international direct dial phone calls to Vietnam.
• 84 is used as the country ISBN code for books from the Spain.
• Baiyoke Sky Hotel, at 84 stories high is the tallest building in Thailand.

• The number of the French department Vaucluse
• The town of Eighty Four, Pennsylvania
• A variation of the game 42 played with two sets of dominoes.
• The company 84 Lumber

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Significant Number Factoid Friday – Today Number Forty-Two 42

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

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They’ve been ‘beautiful’,  they’ve been ‘big’  and they’ve been ‘unusual’.  Today we have another  ‘significant’ number, forty-two, so-called because of its use and the beliefs surrounding it.

Enjoy.

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42 Forty-Two

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In Religion

• In Japanese culture, the number 42 is considered unlucky because the numerals when pronounced separately — “shi ni” (four two) — sound like the phrase, “unto death”;
• There are 42 principles of Ma’at, the Ancient Egyptian personification of physical and moral law, order, and truth. In the judgement scene described in the Egyptian and the Book of the Coming/Going Forth by Day, there are 42 gods and goddesses of Egypt, personifying the principles of Ma’at. These 42 correspond to the 42 Nomes (Governmental Units) of Egypt. If the departed successfully answers all 42, s/he becomes an Osiris;
• 42 is the number with which God creates the Universe in Kabbalistic tradition; 
• In Judaism, the number (in the Babylonian Talmud, compiled 375 AD to 499 AD) of the “Forty-Two Lettered Name” ascribed to God. Rab (or Rabhs), a 3rd century source in the Talmud stated “The Forty-Two Lettered Name is entrusted only to him who is pious, meek, middle-aged, free from bad temper, sober, and not insistent on his rights”. 
• 42 is a sacred Tibetan number and there is also a 42 armed Hindu God;
• The first book to be printed with movable type, the Gutenberg Bible, is also known as the “42-line Bible”, as the book contained 42 lines per page;
• The Forty-Two Articles (1552), largely the work of Thomas Cranmer, were intended to summarise Anglican doctrine, as it now existed under the reign of Edward VI..

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In The Bible

• Forty Two, 3½ and 1260 – this is the amount that is given to the wicked or for people to bear fruit. Judgment occurs at the end. It is based on the law that God only expects results after the third year of planting (Leviticus 19: 23-25);
• This time period appears in many prophecies as 1260 days, 42 months or 3½ years. It is the period that God allows the beast to operate. Notice that this is equal to 6 x 7 months. It is man’s portion of the jubilee cycle; 
• Two female bears kill forty two children after they ridiculed the prophet of God. 2 Kings 2: 24; 
• 42 Cities are given to the Levites in addition to six cities of refuge (Numbers 35: 6); 
• 42 men of Beth-azmaveth were counted in the census of men of Israel upon return from exile (Ezra 2:24); 
• Israel camped 42 times in the wilderness during the 40 year exodus. 
• The goat’s hair and linen curtains covering the sanctuary have a length of 42 and 40 cubits. 
• Jesus was forty two generations from Abraham. (Matthew 1).

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In Mathematics

• 42 is the product of the first three terms of Sylvester’s sequence; like the first five such numbers it is also a primary pseudoperfect number;
• 42 is a partition number – the number of different ways 10 can be represented as the sum of natural numbers;
• 42 is a Størmer number;
• 42 is a perfect score on the USA Math Olympiad (USAMO) and International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO).

Simple Magic Cube adding to 42

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In Science

• 42 is the atomic number of molybdenum;
• 42 is the value of the angle rounded to whole degrees for which a rainbow appears (the critical angle);
• In 1966, mathematician Paul Cooper theorized that the fastest, most efficient way to travel across continents would be to bore a straight hollow tube directly through the Earth, connecting a set of antipodes, evacuate it (remove the air), and then just fall through. The first half of the journey consists of free-fall acceleration, while the second half consists of an exactly equal deceleration. The time for such a journey works out to be 42 minutes. Remarkably, even if the tube does not pass through the exact center of the Earth, the time for a journey powered entirely by gravity (also known as Gravity train) always works out to be 42 minutes, as long as the tube remains friction-free, as while gravity’s force would be lessened, so would the distance traveled at an equal rate. (The same idea was proposed, without calculation by Lewis Carroll in 1893 in Sylvie and Bruno Concluded.)

Gravity Train Concept

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In Technology

• The glyph, or character, corresponding to the number 42 in the ASCII character set, is *, the asterisk, commonly known as the wildcard character;
• In the TIFF image file format, the second 16-bit word of every file is 42, which is used together with the first word to indicate byte order;
• In the reiser4 file system, 42 is the inode number of the root directory;
• In the military IRIG 106 Chapter 10 data recording standard, the hex value 0x464F52545974776F (ASCII “FORTYtwo”) is used as a magic number to identify directory blocks;
• The GNU C Library, a set of standard routines available for use in computer programming, contains a function—memfrob()—which performs an XOR combination of a given variable and the binary pattern 00101010 (42) as an XOR cipher;
• 42 is the result given by the web search engines Google and Wolfram Alpha when the query “the answer to life the universe and everything” is entered as a search.

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In Space

• Messier object M42, a magnitude 5.0 diffuse nebula in the constellation Orion, also known as the Orion Nebula;
• The New General Catalogue object NGC 42, is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Pegasus;
• In January 2004, asteroid 2001 DA42 was given the permanent name 25924 Douglasadams, for the author Douglas Adams who popularized the number 42 and died in 2001; 
• Kepler-42, is a red dwarf in the constellation Cygnus around which orbits the three smallest exoplanets found to date.

Messier-42 also known as the Orion Nebula

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In Politics

• The 42nd President of the Unites States of America was Democratic Party William (Bill) Jefferson Clinton, from January 20, 1993 to January 20, 2001. Vice President was Al Gore. Remembered more for ‘blow-jobs’ in the White House, Clinton’s Presidency also oversaw the disastrous Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in 1999, that repealed the parts of the Glass–Steagall Act which had not already been repealed. This 1999 Act took down barriers to competition between traditional banks, investment banks, and insurance companies, in some cases allowing firms to participate in all three markets thus making distinctions between these categories less clear. It has been held largely responsible for the current financial crisis. 

Bill Clinton, 42nd President of the United States of America

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In Sport

• 42 is the jersey number of Jackie Robinson, which is the only number retired by all Major League Baseball teams. Although the number was retired in 1997, Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees, the last professional baseball player to wear number 42, is currently still using it;
• 42 is the jersey number of basketball Hall of Famer and one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History James Worthy, small forward for the Los Angeles Lakers, who retired his jersey number in 1995;
• 42 is the jersey number of football Hall of Famer, Ronnie Lott, safety for the San Francisco 49ers, who retired his jersey number in 2003;
• 42 is the jersey number of Chicago Bears legend Sid Luckman, which was retired by the Bears; 
• 42 is the jersey number of Pat Tillman, which was retired on November 13, 2004 by Arizona State University; 
• 42 is the number of laws of cricket;
• 42 is the number of kilometers in a marathon;
• 42 is the number of a NASCAR car owned by Earnhardt Ganassi Racing. It is currently being driven by former F1 star and Indy 500 champion Juan Pablo Montoya;

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In Militaria

• XB-42
• The most notable aircraft with the 42 designation was the XB-42 ‘Mixmaster’. This aircraft was developed initially as a private venture and an unsolicited proposal was presented to the United States Army Air Forces in May 1943 which resulted in an Air Force contract for two prototypes and one static test airframe, the USAAF seeing an intriguing possibility of finding a bomber capable of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress’ range without its size or cost.
• The aircraft was unusual in design in that it had a pair of Allison V-1710-125 liquid-cooled V-12 engines mounted behind the crew’s cabin, each driving one of the twin propellers which protruded from the rear of the aircraft’s fuselage. The pilot and co-pilot sat under twin bubble canopies, and the bombardier sat in the extreme front behind a plexiglass nose.
• The first XB-42 was delivered to the Army Air Force and flew at Palm Springs, California on 6 May 1944. Performance was excellent, being basically as described in the original proposal; as fast or faster than the de Havilland Mosquito but with defensive armament and twice the bombload. The twin bubble canopies proved a bad idea as communications were adversely affected and a single bubble canopy was substituted after the first flight, a problem that could have been rectified, but the end of World War II changed priorities and the advent of the jet engine gave an alternative way toward achieving high speed.

XB-42 ‘Mixmaster’ and model

 

• AG-42
• The AG-42 rifle (official designation Halvautomatiskt Gevaer 42) was developed by Swedish engineer Erik Eklund while working at company C. J. Ljungman AB. Officially adopted by Swedish army in 1942, this rifle served in Sweden until mid-1960s, when it was replaced in service with 7.62mm AK-4 rifle (license-build HK G3 rifle).

AG-42B Rifle

 

• MKb.42
• In 1939 HWaA (Hitler’s army Weapons command) issued a contract for the development of a “Maschinen karabiner”, or machine carbine (MKb for short), chambered for the new 7.92×33 Kurz cartridge, to the company C.G. Haenel Waffen und Fahrradfabrik.
• The famous designer Hugo Schmeisser led the Haenel development team, which produced the first working prototypes of new weapon by 1942. The new weapon was intended as a replacement for submachine guns, bolt action rifles and, partly, light machine guns for front troops. The MKb.42(H) could be fitted with standardbayonet, and has a wooden butt. 

mkb 42h-1 ri

 

• MG 42
• A cheaper to produce but much more reliable replacement for the MG 34, the MG 42 was officially adopted as the MG 42, and production commenced in 1941.
• In general terms, the MG 42 was a great success. It fulfilled the roles of a light machine gun on a bipod, a medium machine gun (on a newly developed Lafette 42 tripod), and an anti-aircraft machine gun, mounted in single and twin installations, ground and vehicle-mounted. 
• After the WW2 the MG 42, unlike other wartime designs, lived on, as in 1958, the FRG (WestGermany) re-instituted its official armed force, known as the Bundeswehr. 
• The simplicity, low manufacturing cost and high effectiveness of the MG 3 attracted several other countries, which either bought the guns from Rheinmetall (such as Denmark), or obtained manufacturing licenses and build (or at least have built in the past) the same guns domestically (such as Italy, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan and Yugoslavia). In total, at least twenty armies have used or still are using the MG 3 and its versions.

mg42 machine gun

 

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In Books, Movies & TV

• The 42nd Parallel is the first of a trilogy of books, (the others being 1919, and The Big Money), written by John Dos Passos and acclaimed by many to be the great American novel;
• English author Douglas Noel Adams popularized the number 42 in his best known work called the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. The number 42 and the phrase, “Life, the universe, and everything” have attained cult status on the Internet. If you type the answer to life, the universe and everything into Google (without quotes or capitalising the small words), the Google Calculator will give you 42; also, if you go to Wolfram’s Computational Knowledge Engine and type “answer to life, the universe, and everything”, it provides you with the result 42. Microsoft’s Bing search engine will also give you 42. Alphasmart 3000’s calculator, when given any equation that results in 42, will display, “The answer to life, the universe, and everything”. In the online community “Second Life,” there is a section on a sim called “42nd Life”;
• In the Stargate Atlantis Season 4 episode “Quarantine”, 42 are the last two digits in Rodney McKay’s password. After John Sheppard explains to Teyla the meaning of the previous twelve digits, she asks him what 42 is. Then, John says, “It’s the ultimate answer to the great question of life, the universe, and everything,” at which point Teyla looks confused;
• In the TV show Lost, 42 is the last of the mysterious numbers, 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42;
• In Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, Alex browses through records in a record store and we see a record of the, at this time fictional, band Level 42;
• “42” is an episode of Doctor Who, set in real time lasting approximately 42 minutes;
• “The Kumars at No. 42” is the name of a 2003 BBC television series; 
• A made for TV movie 42: Forty Two Up – an installment in a series of documentaries wherein the director revisits the same group of British-born individuals every 7 years;
• On the game show Jeopardy!, “Watson” the IBM supercomputer, has 42 “threads” in its avatar;
• On the Unusuals TV-show there’s an episode called “42”. Detective Leo Banks recently turned 42. On account of his father, uncle, and grandfather dropping dead at 42, Leo is convinced he’ll share their fate. There were 42s all over the episode.

42nd Parallel by John Dos Passos

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Other Stuff

• In New York City, 42nd Street is a main and very popular two-way thoroughfare. Landmarks on it include the Chrysler Building, Grand Central Station, the main branch of the New York Public Library, and Times Square; 
• Tower 42, originally called the NatWest Tower because it was built for the National Westminster Bank, is the tallest skyscraper in the city of London and the fifth tallest in London as a whole;
• +42 is the historic Country calling code for the former country of Czechoslovakia; 
• 42 is the number of US gallons in a barrel of oil;
• 42 is the number of spots (or pips, circular patches or pits) on a pair of standard six-sided dice;
• 42 is a free tabloid devoted to technology news in Huntsville, Alabama. It is published by the Huntsville Times and is named for “The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything”;
• Fictional comic book superhero Miles Morales is bitten by a genetically altered spider with a red 42 marked on its abdomen. Morales later assumes the role of Spider-Man as a result of the bite and following the death of Peter Parker in the Ultimate Marvel universe from Marvel Comics. Morales also wins a coveted spot in a prestigious charter school after his number (42) is chosen during a lottery.

Miles Morales Spiderman