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 ten sensational facts about the number six.
The number six is perfect. Well, a perfect number anyway. A perfect number is a number that is equal to the numbers it can be divided by. In the number six’s case, it can be divided by one, two, and three. If you add these together, it makes the number six, which is the lowest perfect number.
Both the prefix hex- and sex- can be used to denote the number six. For example, a sextet is a group of six musicians, while a hexagon has six sides. The reason we use both hex- and sex- is because they come from Greek and Latin. Latin for six is sex, while the Greek for six is hex.
If you’re a fan of math, brace yourselves for the sexiest mathematical term ever – sexy primes. Sexy primes are two different primes that are six numbers apart, such as five and eleven. Once again, these primes are sexy because they would read as sixy primes in Latin!
The most common shape of a die is a six-sided cube, which, as its name implies, has six faces. This is because it is a cube, and all cubes must have six identical faces. Another name for a shape with six faces is a hexahedron.
There are, unsurprisingly, many different bands that use the number six in their name. Some of these include You Me At Six, Six Organs Of Admittance, Electric Six, Six on Six, and Vanity Six!
A fathom is a unit of measurement used within both US and imperial measurements and is equal to six feet (1.828 m). The most common usage of fathoms is when measuring the depth of water, but it isn’t an internationally accepted unit of measurement. While it isn’t as commonly used nowadays, it was the most frequently used unit for measuring the depth of water throughout the history of the English-speaking world.
Many different instruments have a connection with the number six. Anyone who has picked up a guitar and played Wonderwall should know that standard guitars have six strings. Many woodwind instruments also have six holes bored into them.
Hundreds of millions of hexagons can be found naturally all over the world and under all of our noses! Where, you might ask? Honeycomb! For some reason, bees are absolutely obsessed with hexagons and fill their hives with hexagonal honeycombs.
August used to be the sixth month in the ancient Roman calendar, and it had a different name. Because it was the sixth month, it was duly named Sextilis (remember that in Latin, sex means six). Then Julius Caesar came along and added in June and July, bumping Sextilis back and giving it a different name.
We commonly accept the fact that we as humans have just five senses – smell, taste, sight, touch, and hearing. That being said, if someone is said to sense things with their mind instead of their physical senses, they’re said to have the sixth sense. Also known as extrasensory perception, people with this claim can sense things that others wouldn’t normally do, giving them heightened awareness.
The math doesn’t lie; six truly is a perfect number, and not just in a mathematical sense! Anyone who’s a fan of board games loves the number six, as it’s the best number you can roll.
That’s all good and well, but the coolest thing is probably still that honeycomb is made out of perfect six-sided shapes!
