Over the ages, people have attributed many facts to numbers.
Numerology, superstition, important dates, and so many other things cling to various numbers, which in some cases gives them great significance!
Today let’s take a look at 31 fun facts about the number 31!
Thirty-one is the eleventh prime number. A prime number is a number that can only be divided by itself and the number 1.
If you add up the first 31 prime numbers, the result will be 1,720.
31 is also known as something called a Mersenne Prime. A Mersenne Prime is a little more than a standard prime number, as it’s equated to be 2^n – 1. In the case of 31 (the third Mersenne Prime), it is 2⁵ – 1.
The atomic number of the element gallium is 31. At room temperature, gallium is a shiny silver-like metal. It belongs to the 13th group of the periodic table, along with similar metals such as thallium and aluminum.
The goalkeepers in the game of ice hockey typically wear the number 31 on their jerseys.
Speaking of ice hockey, in the 2020-2021 season of the North American National Hockey League, there are a total of 31 different teams. Seven of those teams are from Canada, and the rest are from the USA.
The Cyrillic alphabet is a bit larger than the English alphabet, with 31 letters. This alphabet is commonly used in a number of countries, including Russia, Belarus, and Bulgaria.
The Macedonian alphabet, which is closely adapted from the Cyrillic alphabet, also has 31 letters in it.
The global ice cream chain Baskin Robbins is also known in some countries such as Japan as 31 Flavors. They’re called this because they always have 31 different flavors available at any point in time (although the flavors themselves do change!).
There’s a card game on which people put bets called Thirty-One. The game can be played by as many as seven people, with the goal of collecting a number of cards that add up to the number 31.
Most months of the year have 31 days in them. These months are January, March, May, July, August, October, and December.
There are 1,000,000,000 (one billion) seconds in 31 years.
In English, we have the expression dressed to the nines, which means to be extremely well dressed. In French, this expression relates to the number 31 instead.
In the game Roulette, the number 31 is a black number. On European roulette wheels, the number 31 sits between the numbers 9 and 14, while on a US wheel, it sits between the numbers 18 and 19.
In Astronomy, there is a selection of celestial objects identified by the French astronomer Charles Messier in 1774. The 31st Messier object (M31) is a 4.5-magnitude spiral galaxy referred to commonly as the Andromeda Galaxy due to its location within the Andromeda constellation.
If you wish to call someone who lives in the Netherlands, remember the number 31, as +31 is their international dialing code.
California was incorporated as the United States of America’s 31st state on September 9, 1850. It joined the Union as a free state, meaning slavery was illegal within the state.
California is the 31st state, and the first two letters of the state’s name are “c” and “a,” which just happen to be the third and first letters of the alphabet. Coincidence? I’ll let you decide!
The 31st most expansive state in the US is Louisiana, with some 52,378 square miles (135,659 square kilometers) of land and water.
The state of Mississippi is the 31st most expansive US state in terms of land, with some 46,923 square miles (121,530 square kilometers).
Speaking of the US, the 31st president of the US was Herbert Hoover. He served as the President from 1929 to 1933 and is known as the President in power when the Great Depression struck the US. The Hoover Dam is also named after him.
Number 31 is the code word that Barney Stinson from the hit US sitcom How I Met Your Mother uses to refer to the mother of his child, who he met on August 31st.
One of the largest paintings ever completed by Jackson Pollock, one of the most influential abstract expressionist artists from the US, is titled “One: Number 31”.
31 is the name of an American horror film released in 2016. Produced, written, and directed by Rob Zombie, it’s set in the 70s and follows a group of five carnival workers who get kidnapped by a group of clowns. It sounds like a real laugh!
When you combine the first eight digits of π (Pi), it adds up to 31.
Believe it or not, there’s a small town called Trenton in Tennessee which has a speed limit of 31 miles per hour(49.89 kilometers per hour).
There are 31 milligrams (.0011 ounces) of cholesterol in one tablespoon of unmelted butter.
The first space station to continuously house astronauts was the Soviet space station Mir, which operated from 1986 until 2001. In all of its years of service, a total of 31 Soyuz spaceships flew to it.
There is a total of 31 verses in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis, the first book in both the Old Testament and the Hebrew Bible.
Buddha preached that there are 31 different planes, or levels, in existence. For example, he preached that the devas (god-like beings) were not, in fact, immortal gods but instead were beings who had been born in the celestial planes.
In 2003 Lance Armstrong became the second person to ever win the Tour de France five times in a row. He was 31 years old at the time.
As you can see here, the number 31 might not be as highly revered as some other numbers, but it creeps into so many different parts of our lives.
From pop culture to space stations, languages to religion, 31 can be found almost everywhere!
