4/04/2009

Five*

Five is the only prime number to end in the digit 5, because all other numbers written with a 5 in the ones-place under the decimal system are multiples of five. As a consequence of this, 5 is in base 10 a 1-automorphic number.
Image:Evolution5glyph.png
The evolution of our modern glyph for five cannot be neatly traced back to the Brahmin Indians quite the same way it can for 1 to 4. Later on the Kushana and Gupta Indians had among themselves several different glyphs which bear no resemblance to the modern glyph. The Nagari and Punjabi took these glyphs and all came up with glyphs that look like a lowercase "h" rotated 180°. The Ghubar Arabs transformed the glyph in several different ways, coming up with glyphs that look more like 4s or 3s than 5s.[2] It was from those characters that the Europeans finally came up with the modern 5, though from purely graphical evidence, it would be much easier to conclude that our modern 5 came from the Khmer. The Khmer glyph develops from the Kushana/Ândhra/Gupta numeral, its shape looking like a modern day version with an extended swirled 'tail'.

The denomination of Canadian paper money bearing a portrait of Wilfrid Laurier, Canada's seventh Prime Minister.

5 is the uniform number of Hall of Fame Baseball players Luke Appling, George Brett, Lou Boudreau, Hank Greenberg, Johnny Bench, Joe DiMaggio, and Brooks Robinson.


*-Thank you Wikipedia.

5 dies insquequo Oris Dies!

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