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4 (four) is a
number,
numeral and
digit
Digit may refer to:
Mathematics and science
* Numerical digit, as used in mathematics or computer science
** Hindu-Arabic numerals, the most common modern representation of numerical digits
* Digit (anatomy), the most distal part of a limb, such ...
. It is the
natural number following
3 and preceding
5. It is the smallest
semiprime and
composite number, and is
considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures.
In mathematics
Four is the smallest
composite number, its proper
divisors being and . Four is the sum and product of
two with itself:
+
=
=
x
, the only number
such that
+
=
=
x
, which also makes four the smallest squared
prime number . In
Knuth's up-arrow notation, , and so forth, for any number of up arrows. By consequence, four is the only square one more than a prime number, specifically
three. The sum of the first four prime numbers
two +
three +
five
5 is a number, numeral, and glyph.
5, five or number 5 may also refer to:
* AD 5, the fifth year of the AD era
* 5 BC, the fifth year before the AD era
Literature
* ''5'' (visual novel), a 2008 visual novel by Ram
* ''5'' (comics), an awa ...
+
seven
7 is a number, numeral, and glyph.
7 or seven may also refer to:
* AD 7, the seventh year of the AD era
* 7 BC, the seventh year before the AD era
* The month of
July
Music Artists
* Seven (Swiss singer) (born 1978), a Swiss recording artist ...
is the only sum of four consecutive prime numbers that yields an
odd
Odd means unpaired, occasional, strange or unusual, or a person who is viewed as eccentric.
Odd may also refer to:
Acronym
* ODD (Text Encoding Initiative) ("One Document Does it all"), an abstracted literate-programming format for describing X ...
prime number,
seventeen
Seventeen or 17 may refer to:
*17 (number), the natural number following 16 and preceding 18
* one of the years 17 BC, AD 17, 1917, 2017
Literature
Magazines
* ''Seventeen'' (American magazine), an American magazine
* ''Seventeen'' (Japanese m ...
, which is the fourth
super-prime
Super-prime numbers, also known as higher-order primes or prime-indexed primes (PIPs), are the subsequence of prime numbers that occupy prime-numbered positions within the sequence of all prime numbers.
The subsequence begins
:3, 5, 11, 17, 31, ...
. Four lies between the first proper pair of
twin primes
A twin prime is a prime number that is either 2 less or 2 more than another prime number—for example, either member of the twin prime pair (41, 43). In other words, a twin prime is a prime that has a prime gap of two. Sometimes the term ''twin pr ...
,
three and
five
5 is a number, numeral, and glyph.
5, five or number 5 may also refer to:
* AD 5, the fifth year of the AD era
* 5 BC, the fifth year before the AD era
Literature
* ''5'' (visual novel), a 2008 visual novel by Ram
* ''5'' (comics), an awa ...
, which are the first two
Fermat primes, like
seventeen
Seventeen or 17 may refer to:
*17 (number), the natural number following 16 and preceding 18
* one of the years 17 BC, AD 17, 1917, 2017
Literature
Magazines
* ''Seventeen'' (American magazine), an American magazine
* ''Seventeen'' (Japanese m ...
, which is the third. On the other hand, the
square of four 4
2, equivalently the
fourth power of two 2
4, is
sixteen; the only number that has
=
as a form of
factorization. Holistically, there are four elementary arithmetic
operations
Operation or Operations may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity
* Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory
* ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Man ...
in mathematics:
addition
Addition (usually signified by the Plus and minus signs#Plus sign, plus symbol ) is one of the four basic Operation (mathematics), operations of arithmetic, the other three being subtraction, multiplication and Division (mathematics), division. ...
(+),
subtraction
Subtraction is an arithmetic operation that represents the operation of removing objects from a collection. Subtraction is signified by the minus sign, . For example, in the adjacent picture, there are peaches—meaning 5 peaches with 2 taken ...
(−),
multiplication
Multiplication (often denoted by the cross symbol , by the mid-line dot operator , by juxtaposition, or, on computers, by an asterisk ) is one of the four elementary mathematical operations of arithmetic, with the other ones being additi ...
(×), and
division (÷); and four basic
number systems, the
real numbers
,
rational numbers
,
integers
, and
natural numbers
.
Each natural number divisible by 4 is a difference of squares of two natural numbers, i.e.
=
−
. A number is a multiple of 4 if its last two digits are a multiple of 4. For example, 1092 is a multiple of 4 because .
Lagrange's four-square theorem states that every positive integer can be written as the sum of at most four
square numbers. Three are not always sufficient; for instance cannot be written as the sum of three squares.
There are four
all-Harshad number
In mathematics, a harshad number (or Niven number) in a given number base is an integer that is divisible by the sum of its digits when written in that base.
Harshad numbers in base are also known as -harshad (or -Niven) numbers.
Harshad number ...
s:
1,
2, ''4'', and
6.
12, which is divisible by four thrice over, is a Harshad number in all bases except
octal.
A four-sided plane figure is a
quadrilateral or quadrangle, sometimes also called a ''tetragon''. It can be further classified as a
rectangle
In Euclidean plane geometry, a rectangle is a quadrilateral with four right angles. It can also be defined as: an equiangular quadrilateral, since equiangular means that all of its angles are equal (360°/4 = 90°); or a parallelogram containi ...
or ''oblong'',
kite,
rhombus, and
square.
Four is the highest degree general
polynomial equation for which there is a
solution in radicals
A solution in radicals or algebraic solution is a closed-form expression, and more specifically a closed-form algebraic expression, that is the solution of a polynomial equation, and relies only on addition, subtraction, multiplication, divi ...
.
The
four-color theorem states that a
planar graph
In graph theory, a planar graph is a graph that can be embedded in the plane, i.e., it can be drawn on the plane in such a way that its edges intersect only at their endpoints. In other words, it can be drawn in such a way that no edges cross ...
(or, equivalently, a flat
map of two-dimensional regions such as countries) can be colored using four colors, so that adjacent vertices (or regions) are always different colors. Three colors are not, in general, sufficient to guarantee this. The largest planar
complete graph has four vertices.
A solid figure with four faces as well as four vertices is a
tetrahedron, which is the smallest possible number of faces and vertices a
polyhedron can have. The regular tetrahedron, also called a 3-
simplex
In geometry, a simplex (plural: simplexes or simplices) is a generalization of the notion of a triangle or tetrahedron to arbitrary dimensions. The simplex is so-named because it represents the simplest possible polytope in any given dimension. ...
, is the simplest
Platonic solid. It has four
regular triangles as faces that are themselves at
dual positions with the vertices of another tetrahedron. Tetrahedra can be inscribed inside all other four Platonic solids, and
tessellate space alongside the
regular octahedron in the
alternated cubic honeycomb.
Four-dimensional space
A four-dimensional space (4D) is a mathematical extension of the concept of three-dimensional or 3D space. Three-dimensional space is the simplest possible abstraction of the observation that one only needs three numbers, called ''dimensions'', ...
is the highest-dimensional space featuring more than three
regular convex figures:
*Two-dimensional: infinitely many
regular polygons.
*Three-dimensional: five
regular polyhedra; the five
Platonic solids which are the
tetrahedron,
cube
In geometry, a cube is a three-dimensional solid object bounded by six square faces, facets or sides, with three meeting at each vertex. Viewed from a corner it is a hexagon and its net is usually depicted as a cross.
The cube is the only r ...
,
octahedron,
dodecahedron, and
icosahedron
In geometry, an icosahedron ( or ) is a polyhedron with 20 faces. The name comes and . The plural can be either "icosahedra" () or "icosahedrons".
There are infinitely many non- similar shapes of icosahedra, some of them being more symmetrica ...
.
*Four-dimensional: six
regular polychora; the
5-cell
In geometry, the 5-cell is the convex 4-polytope with Schläfli symbol . It is a 5-vertex four-dimensional object bounded by five tetrahedral cells. It is also known as a C5, pentachoron, pentatope, pentahedroid, or tetrahedral pyramid. It i ...
, 8-cell or
tesseract,
16-cell
In geometry, the 16-cell is the regular convex 4-polytope (four-dimensional analogue of a Platonic solid) with Schläfli symbol . It is one of the six regular convex 4-polytopes first described by the Swiss mathematician Ludwig Schläfli in the mi ...
,
24-cell
In geometry, the 24-cell is the convex regular 4-polytope (four-dimensional analogue of a Platonic solid) with Schläfli symbol . It is also called C24, or the icositetrachoron, octaplex (short for "octahedral complex"), icosatetrahedroid, oct ...
,
120-cell
In geometry, the 120-cell is the convex regular 4-polytope (four-dimensional analogue of a Platonic solid) with Schläfli symbol . It is also called a C120, dodecaplex (short for "dodecahedral complex"), hyperdodecahedron, polydodecahedron, heca ...
, and
600-cell. The
24-cell
In geometry, the 24-cell is the convex regular 4-polytope (four-dimensional analogue of a Platonic solid) with Schläfli symbol . It is also called C24, or the icositetrachoron, octaplex (short for "octahedral complex"), icosatetrahedroid, oct ...
, made of regular
octahedra, has no analogue in any other dimension; it is
self-dual
In mathematics, a duality translates concepts, theorems or mathematical structures into other concepts, theorems or structures, in a Injective function, one-to-one fashion, often (but not always) by means of an Involution (mathematics), involutio ...
, with its
24-cell honeycomb
In Four-dimensional space, four-dimensional Euclidean geometry, the 24-cell honeycomb, or icositetrachoric honeycomb is a regular polytope, regular space-filling tessellation (or honeycomb (geometry), honeycomb) of 4-dimensional Euclidean space by ...
dual to the
16-cell honeycomb
In Four-dimensional space, four-dimensional Euclidean geometry, the 16-cell honeycomb is one of the three regular space-filling tessellations (or honeycomb (geometry), honeycombs), represented by Schläfli symbol , and constructed by a 4-dimensiona ...
.
*Five-dimensional and every higher dimension: three regular convex
-
polytopes, all within the infinite family of regular
-
simplex
In geometry, a simplex (plural: simplexes or simplices) is a generalization of the notion of a triangle or tetrahedron to arbitrary dimensions. The simplex is so-named because it represents the simplest possible polytope in any given dimension. ...
es,
-
hypercube
In geometry, a hypercube is an ''n''-dimensional analogue of a square () and a cube (). It is a closed, compact, convex figure whose 1- skeleton consists of groups of opposite parallel line segments aligned in each of the space's dimensions, ...
s, and
-
orthoplexes.
The fourth dimension is also the highest dimension where regular
self-intersecting figures exist:
*Two-dimensional: infinitaly many regular
star polygon
In geometry, a star polygon is a type of non-convex polygon. Regular star polygons have been studied in depth; while star polygons in general appear not to have been formally defined, certain notable ones can arise through truncation operations ...
s.
*Three-dimensional: ''four'' regular
star polyhedra
In geometry, a star polyhedron is a polyhedron which has some repetitive quality of nonconvexity giving it a star-like visual quality.
There are two general kinds of star polyhedron:
*Polyhedra which self-intersect in a repetitive way.
*Concave p ...
, the
regular Kepler-Poinsot star polyhedra.
*Four-dimensional: ten regular
star polychora, the
Schläfli–Hess star polychora. They contain
cells
Cell most often refers to:
* Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life
Cell may also refer to:
Locations
* Monastic cell, a small room, hut, or cave in which a religious recluse lives, alternatively the small precursor of a monastery w ...
of Kepler-Poinsot polyhedra alongside regular tetrahedra,
icosahedra
In geometry, an icosahedron ( or ) is a polyhedron with 20 faces. The name comes and . The plural can be either "icosahedra" () or "icosahedrons".
There are infinitely many non- similar shapes of icosahedra, some of them being more symmetrica ...
and
dodecahedra.
*Five-dimensional and every higher dimension: zero regular
star-polytopes;
uniform star polytopes in dimensions
>
are the most symmetric, which mainly originate from
stellation
In geometry, stellation is the process of extending a polygon in two dimensions, polyhedron in three dimensions, or, in general, a polytope in ''n'' dimensions to form a new figure. Starting with an original figure, the process extends specific el ...
s of regular
-polytopes.
Altogether,
sixteen (or 16 = 4
2) regular convex and star polychora are generated from symmetries of ''four'' (4)
Coxeter Weyl groups and
point groups in the fourth dimension: the
simplex,
hypercube,
icositetrachoric, and
hexacosichoric groups; with the
demihypercube group generating two alternative constructions.
There are also
sixty-four (or 64 = 4
3) four-dimensional
Bravais lattices, ''and'' sixty-four
uniform polychora
In geometry, a uniform 4-polytope (or uniform polychoron) is a 4-dimensional polytope which is vertex-transitive and whose cells are uniform polyhedra, and faces are regular polygons.
There are 47 non-prismatic convex uniform 4-polytopes. There ...
in the fourth dimension based on the same
,
,
and
Coxeter groups
In mathematics, a Coxeter group, named after Harold Scott MacDonald Coxeter, H. S. M. Coxeter, is an group (mathematics), abstract group that admits a group presentation, formal description in terms of Reflection (mathematics), reflections (or Kal ...
, and extending to
prismatic groups of
uniform polyhedra, including one special
non-Wythoffian form, the
grand antiprism. There are also two infinite families of
duoprisms and
antiprismatic prisms in the fourth dimension.
Four-dimensional
differential manifolds have some unique properties. There is only one
differential structure on
except when
=
, in which case there are uncountably many.
The smallest non-
cyclic group has four elements; it is the
Klein four-group. ''A''
alternating groups are not
simple for values
≤
.
Further extensions of the real numbers under
Hurwitz's theorem states that there are four
normed division algebras: the real numbers
, the
complex numbers , the
quaternion
In mathematics, the quaternion number system extends the complex numbers. Quaternions were first described by the Irish mathematician William Rowan Hamilton in 1843 and applied to mechanics in three-dimensional space. Hamilton defined a quatern ...
s
, and the
octonions
. Under
Cayley–Dickson constructions, the
sedenions
constitute a further fourth extension over
. The real numbers are
ordered,
commutative and
associative
In mathematics, the associative property is a property of some binary operations, which means that rearranging the parentheses in an expression will not change the result. In propositional logic, associativity is a valid rule of replacement f ...
algebras, as well as
alternative algebras with
power-associativity In mathematics, specifically in abstract algebra, power associativity is a property of a binary operation that is a weak form of associativity.
Definition
An algebra over a field, algebra (or more generally a magma (algebra), magma) is said to be ...
. The complex numbers
share all four multiplicative algebraic properties of the reals
, without being ordered. The quaternions loose a further commutative algebraic property, while holding associative, alternative, and power-associative properties. The octonions are alternative and power-associative, while the sedenions are only power-associative. The sedenions and all further ''extensions'' of these four normed division algebras are solely power-associative with non-trivial
zero divisors, which makes them
non-division algebras.
has a
vector space of
dimension 1, while
,
,
and
work in
algebraic number field
In mathematics, an algebraic number field (or simply number field) is an extension field K of the field of rational numbers such that the field extension K / \mathbb has finite degree (and hence is an algebraic field extension).
Thus K is a f ...
s of dimensions 2, 4, 8, and 16, respectively.
List of basic calculations
Evolution of the Hindu-Arabic digit
Brahmic numerals
The Brahmi numerals are a numeral system attested from the 3rd century BCE (somewhat later in the case of most of the tens). They are a non positional decimal system. They are the direct graphic ancestors of the modern Hindu–Arabic numeral s ...
represented 1, 2, and 3 with as many lines. 4 was simplified by joining its four lines into a cross that looks like the modern plus sign. The
Shunga would add a horizontal line on top of the digit, and the Kshatrapa and Pallava evolved the digit to a point where the speed of writing was a secondary concern. The
Arabs' 4 still had the early concept of the cross, but for the sake of efficiency, was made in one stroke by connecting the "western" end to the "northern" end; the "eastern" end was finished off with a curve. The Europeans dropped the finishing curve and gradually made the digit less cursive, ending up with a digit very close to the original Brahmin cross.
While the shape of the character for the digit 4 has an
ascender in most modern
typefaces, in typefaces with
text figures the glyph usually has a
descender, as, for example, in
.
On the
seven-segment displays of pocket calculators and digital watches, as well as certain
optical character recognition fonts, 4 is seen with an open top.
Television stations that operate on
channel 4 have occasionally made use of another variation of the "open 4", with the open portion being on the side, rather than the top. This version resembles the
Canadian Aboriginal syllabics
Canadian syllabic writing, or simply syllabics, is a family of writing systems used in a number of Indigenous Canadian languages of the Algonquian, Inuit, and (formerly) Athabaskan language families. These languages had no formal writing s ...
letter ᔦ. The
magnetic ink character recognition "CMC-7" font also uses this variety of "4".
In religion
Buddhism
*
Four Noble Truths
In Buddhism, the Four Noble Truths (Sanskrit: ; pi, cattāri ariyasaccāni; "The four Arya satyas") are "the truths of the Noble Ones", the truths or realities for the "spiritually worthy ones". –
–
, Pratītyasamutpāda">Samudaya
In Buddhism, the Four Noble Truths (Sanskrit: ; pi, cattāri ariyasaccāni; "The four Arya satyas") are "the truths of the Noble Ones", the truths or realities for the "spiritually worthy ones".[aFour Noble Truths: BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY Encycl ...
,
Nirodha
In Buddhism, nirodha, "cessation," "extinction," or "suppression," refers to the cessation or renouncing of craving and desire. It is the third of the Four Noble Truths,_stating_that_suffering_(dukkha.html" ;"title="Four Noble Truths: BUDDHIST P ...
, Noble Eightfold Path">Magga
The Buddhist path (''marga'') to liberation, also referred to as awakening, is described in a wide variety of ways. The classical one is the Noble Eightfold Path, which is only one of several summaries presented in the Sutta Pitaka. A number of o ...
*Four sights – observations which affected Prince Siddhartha deeply and made him realize the sufferings of all beings, and compelled him to begin his spiritual journey—an old age, old man, a illness, sick man, a
death, dead man, and an
ascetic
Asceticism (; from the el, ἄσκησις, áskesis, exercise', 'training) is a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from sensual pleasures, often for the purpose of pursuing spiritual goals. Ascetics may withdraw from the world for their p ...
*
Four Great Elements –
earth,
water,
fire, and
wind
*
Four Heavenly Kings
The Four Heavenly Kings are four Buddhist gods, each of whom is believed to watch over one cardinal direction of the world. In Chinese mythology, they are known collectively as the "Fēng Tiáo Yǔ Shùn" () or "Sìdà Tiānwáng" (). In the a ...
*
Four Foundations of Mindfulness
''Satipatthana'' ( pi, Satipaṭṭhāna, italic=yes; sa, smṛtyupasthāna, italic=yes) is a central practice in the Buddha's teachings, meaning "the establishment of mindfulness" or "presence of mindfulness", or alternatively "foundations of ...
– contemplation of the body, contemplation of feelings, contemplation of mind, contemplation of mental objects
*
Four Right Exertions
The Four Right Exertions (also known as, Four Proper Exertions, Four Right Efforts, Four Great Efforts, Four Right Endeavors or Four Right Strivings) (Pali: '; Skt.: ' or ') are an integral part of the Buddhist path to Enlightenment (understan ...
*
Four Bases of Power
*
Four jhānas
*
Four arūpajhānas
*
Four Divine Abidings –
loving-kindness Loving-kindness may refer to:
* an English translation of Chesed
( he, חֶסֶד, also Romanized: ) is a Hebrew word that means 'kindness or love between people', specifically of the devotional piety of people towards God as well as of love o ...
,
compassion
Compassion motivates people to go out of their way to relieve the physical, mental or emotional pains of others and themselves. Compassion is often regarded as being sensitive to the emotional aspects of the suffering of others. When based on n ...
,
sympathetic joy, and
equanimity
Equanimity (Latin: ''æquanimitas'', having an even mind; ''aequus'' even; ''animus'' mind/soul) is a state of inner peace, psychological stability and composure which is undisturbed by experience of or exposure to emotions, pain, or other phenom ...
*
Four stages of enlightenment –
stream-enterer,
once-returner,
non-returner, and
arahant
*
Four main pilgrimage sites –
Lumbini,
Bodh Gaya
Bodh Gaya is a religious site and place of pilgrimage associated with the Mahabodhi Temple Complex in Gaya district in the Indian state of Bihar. It is famous as it is the place where Gautama Buddha is said to have attained Enlightenment ( pi, ...
,
Sarnath, and
Kusinara
Kushinagar ( Hindustani: or ; Pali: ; Sanskrit: ) is a town in the Kushinagar district in Uttar Pradesh, India. It is an important and popular Buddhist pilgrimage site, where Buddhists believe Gautama Buddha attained ''parinirvana''.
Etymo ...
Judeo-Christian symbolism
*The
Tetragrammaton is the four-letter name of
God.
*
Ezekiel
Ezekiel (; he, יְחֶזְקֵאל ''Yəḥezqēʾl'' ; in the Septuagint written in grc-koi, Ἰεζεκιήλ ) is the central protagonist of the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible.
In Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Ezekiel is acknow ...
has a vision of four
living creatures
In biology, an organism () is any living system that functions as an individual entity. All organisms are composed of cells (cell theory). Organisms are classified by taxonomy into groups such as multicellular animals, plants, and fungi; ...
: a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle.
*The four Matriarchs (foremothers) of
Judaism are
Sarah
Sarah (born Sarai) is a biblical matriarch and prophetess, a major figure in Abrahamic religions. While different Abrahamic faiths portray her differently, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all depict her character similarly, as that of a piou ...
,
Rebekah
Rebecca, ; Syriac: , ) from the Hebrew (lit., 'connection'), from Semitic root , 'to tie, couple or join', 'to secure', or 'to snare') () appears in the Hebrew Bible as the wife of Isaac and the mother of Jacob and Esau. According to biblical ...
,
Leah, and
Rachel.
*The
Four Species (
lulav,
hadass
Hadass (Hebrew: הדס, pl. ''hadassim'' - הדסים) is a branch of the myrtle tree that forms part of the lulav used on the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.
Hadass is one of the Four species (''arba'ah minim''–ארבעת המינים). T ...
,
aravah and
etrog) are taken as one of the
mitzvot
In its primary meaning, the Hebrew word (; he, מִצְוָה, ''mīṣvā'' , plural ''mīṣvōt'' ; "commandment") refers to a commandment commanded by God to be performed as a religious duty. Jewish law () in large part consists of discus ...
on the
Jewish holiday of
Sukkot
or ("Booths, Tabernacles")
, observedby = Jews, Samaritans, a few Protestant denominations, Messianic Jews, Semitic Neopagans
, type = Jewish, Samaritan
, begins = 15th day of Tishrei
, ends = 21st day of Tishre ...
. (
Judaism)
*The Four Cups of Wine to drink on the
Jewish holiday of
Passover. (
Judaism)
*The Four Questions to be asked on the
Jewish holiday of
Passover. (
Judaism)
*The Four Sons to be dealt with on the
Jewish holiday of
Passover. (
Judaism)
*The Four Expressions of Redemption to be said on the
Jewish holiday of
Passover. (
Judaism)
*The four
Gospels:
Matthew
Matthew may refer to:
* Matthew (given name)
* Matthew (surname)
* ''Matthew'' (ship), the replica of the ship sailed by John Cabot in 1497
* ''Matthew'' (album), a 2000 album by rapper Kool Keith
* Matthew (elm cultivar), a cultivar of the Ch ...
,
Mark,
Luke
People
*Luke (given name), a masculine given name (including a list of people and characters with the name)
*Luke (surname) (including a list of people and characters with the name)
*Luke the Evangelist, author of the Gospel of Luke. Also known as ...
, and
John. (
Christianity)
*The
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse ride in the
Book of Revelation. (
Christianity)
*The
four holy cities of Judaism:
Jerusalem,
Hebron,
Safed
Safed (known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as Tzfat; Sephardi Hebrew, Sephardic Hebrew & Modern Hebrew: צְפַת ''Tsfat'', Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation, Ashkenazi Hebrew: ''Tzfas'', Biblical Hebrew: ''Ṣǝp̄aṯ''; ar, صفد, ''Ṣafad''), i ...
, and
Tiberius
Hinduism
*There are four
Vedas: Rigveda, Samaveda, Yajurveda and Atharvaveda.
*In
Puruṣārtha
''Purushartha'' (Sanskrit: पुरुषार्थ, International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ) literally means "object(ive) of men".[Dharma
Dharma (; sa, धर्म, dharma, ; pi, dhamma, italic=yes) is a key concept with multiple meanings in Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and others. Although there is no direct single-word translation for '' ...]
,
Artha,
Kāma,
Moksha.
*The four stages of life
Brahmacharya
''Brahmacharya'' (; sa, ब्रह्मचर्य ) is a concept within Indian religions that literally means to stay in conduct within one's own Self. In Yoga, Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism it generally refers to a lifestyle charac ...
(student life),
Grihastha (household life),
Vanaprastha (retired life) and
Sannyasa (renunciation).
*The four primary castes or strata of society:
Brahmana
The Brahmanas (; Sanskrit: , ''Brāhmaṇam'') are Vedic śruti works attached to the Samhitas (hymns and mantras) of the Rig, Sama, Yajur, and Atharva Vedas. They are a secondary layer or classification of Sanskrit texts embedded within ea ...
(priest/teacher),
Kshatriya (warrior/politician),
Vaishya (landowner/entrepreneur) and
Shudra (servant/manual laborer).
*The
swastika
The swastika (卐 or 卍) is an ancient religious and cultural symbol, predominantly in various Eurasian, as well as some African and American cultures, now also widely recognized for its appropriation by the Nazi Party and by neo-Nazis. It ...
symbol is traditionally used in
Hindu
Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
religions as a sign of good luck and signifies good from all four directions.
*The god
Brahma has four faces.
*There are four ''
yuga
A ''yuga'', in Hinduism, is generally used to indicate an age of time.
In the ''Rigveda'', a ''yuga'' refers to generations, a long period, a very brief period, or a yoke (joining of two things). In the ''Mahabharata'', the words ''yuga'' and ...
s'': ''
Satya
''Satya'' (Sanskrit: सत्य; IAST: ''satya)'' is a Sanskrit word loosely translated as truth, essence. A. A. Macdonell, ''Sanskrit English Dictionary'', Asian Educational Services, , pp. 330–331 It also refers to a virtue in Indian relig ...
'', ''
Dvapara'', ''
Treta
''Treta Yuga'', in Hinduism, is the second and second best of the four ''yugas'' (world ages) in a ''Yuga Cycle'', preceded by '' Krita (Satya) Yuga'' and followed by ''Dvapara Yuga''. ''Treta Yuga'' lasts for 1,296,000 years (3,600 divine years) ...
'' and ''
Kali''
Islam
*
Eid al-Adha lasts for four days, from the 10th to the 14th of
Dhul Hijja
Dhu al-Hijja ( ar, ذُو ٱلْحِجَّة, translit=Ḏū al-Ḥijja, ), also spelled Zu al-Hijja, is the twelfth and final month in the Islamic calendar. It is a very sacred month in the Islamic calendar, one in which the '' Ḥajj'' (Pilgri ...
.
*The
four holy cities of Islam: Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem and Damascus.
*The
four tombs in the Green Dome: Muhammad, Abu Bakr, Umar ibn Khattab and Isa ibn Maryam (Jesus).
*There are four
Rashidun
, image = تخطيط كلمة الخلفاء الراشدون.png
, caption = Calligraphic representation of Rashidun Caliphs
, birth_place = Mecca, Hejaz, Arabia present-day Saudi Arabia
, known_for = Companions of t ...
or Rightly Guided
Caliphs:
Abu Bakr,
Umar ibn al-Khattab,
Uthman ibn Affan and
Ali ibn Abi Talib
ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam. ...
.
*The Four
Arch Angels in Islam are: Jibraeel (Gabriel), Mikaeel (Michael), Izraeel (Azrael), and Israfil (Raphael)
*There are four months in which war is not permitted:
Muharram,
Rajab,
Dhu al-Qi'dah and
Dhu al-Hijjah
Dhu al-Hijja ( ar, ذُو ٱلْحِجَّة, translit=Ḏū al-Ḥijja, ), also spelled Zu al-Hijja, is the twelfth and final month in the Islamic calendar. It is a very sacred month in the Islamic calendar, one in which the ''Hajj, Ḥajj'' (P ...
.
*There are four
Sunni
Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...
schools of
fiqh:
Hanafi,
Shafi`i,
Maliki and
Hanbali.
*There are four major Sunni Imams:
Abū Ḥanīfa
Nuʿmān ibn Thābit ibn Zūṭā ibn Marzubān ( ar, نعمان بن ثابت بن زوطا بن مرزبان; –767), commonly known by his '' kunya'' Abū Ḥanīfa ( ar, أبو حنيفة), or reverently as Imam Abū Ḥanīfa by Sunni Musl ...
,
Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi`i,
Malik ibn Anas and
Ahmad ibn Hanbal.
*There are four
books in Islam: Taurait, Zaboor, Injeel, Quran.
*Waiting for four months is ordained for those who take an oath for abstention from their wives.
*The waiting period of the woman whose husband dies is
four months and ten days.
*When Abraham said: "My Lord, show me how You give life to the dead," Allah said: "Why! Do you have no faith?" Abraham replied: "Yes, but in order that my heart be at rest." He said: "Then take four birds, and tame them to yourself, then put a part of them on every hill, and summon them; they will come to you flying.
l-Baqara 2:260*The respite of four months was granted to give time to the mushriks in Surah
At-Tawba so that they should consider their position carefully and decide whether to make preparation for war or to emigrate from the country or to accept Islam.
*Those who accuse honorable women (of unchastity) but do not produce four witnesses, flog them with eighty lashes, and do not admit their testimony ever after. They are indeed transgressors.
n-Noor 24:4
Taoism
*
Four Symbols of
I Ching
The ''I Ching'' or ''Yi Jing'' (, ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. Originally a divination manual in the Western Zho ...
Other
*In a more general sense, numerous mythological and cosmogonical systems consider
Four corners of the world as essentially corresponding to the four points of the compass.
*Four is the sacred number of the
Zia
Zia or ZIA (also spelled Ziya, Ḍiya , Dia or Diya) may refer to:
People
* Zia (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name
** A romanization of the Wu ( Shanghainese) pronunciation of the Chinese surname Xie (謝)
...
, an indigenous tribe located in the U.S. state of
New Mexico.
*The Chinese, the Koreans, and the Japanese are
superstitious about the number four because it is a
homonym for "death" in their languages.
*In
Slavic mythology, the god
Svetovid
Svetovit, Sventovit, Svantovit is the god of abundance and war, and the chief god of the Slavic tribe of the Rani, and later of all the Polabian Slavs. His organized cult was located on the island of Rügen, at Cape Arkona, where his main temp ...
has four heads.
In politics
*
Four Freedoms: four fundamental freedoms that
Franklin D. Roosevelt declared ought to be enjoyed by everyone in the world: Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Freedom from Want, Freedom from Fear.
*
Gang of Four
The Gang of Four () was a Maoist political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials. They came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) and were later charged with a series of treasonous crimes. The gang ...
: Popular name for four Chinese Communist Party leaders who rose to prominence during China's Cultural Revolution, but were ousted in 1976 following the death of Chairman
Mao Zedong. Among the four was Mao's widow,
Jiang Qing. Since then, many other political factions headed by four people have been called "Gangs of Four".
In computing
*Four
bits (half a
byte) are sometimes called a
nibble
In computing, a nibble (occasionally nybble, nyble, or nybl to match the spelling of byte) is a four-bit aggregation, or half an octet. It is also known as half-byte or tetrade. In a networking or telecommunication context, the nibble is oft ...
.
In science
*A
tetramer is an
oligomer
In chemistry and biochemistry, an oligomer () is a molecule that consists of a few repeating units which could be derived, actually or conceptually, from smaller molecules, monomers.Quote: ''Oligomer molecule: A molecule of intermediate relativ ...
formed out of four sub-units.
In astronomy
*Four terrestrial (or rocky) planets in the
Solar System:
Mercury
Mercury commonly refers to:
* Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun
* Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg
* Mercury (mythology), a Roman god
Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to:
Companies
* Merc ...
,
Venus,
Earth, and
Mars.
*Four giant gas/ice planets in the
Solar System:
Jupiter,
Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...
,
Uranus, and
Neptune
Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun and the farthest known planet in the Solar System. It is the fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 times ...
.
*Four of Jupiter's moons (the
Galilean moons
The Galilean moons (), or Galilean satellites, are the four largest moons of Jupiter: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. They were first seen by Galileo Galilei in December 1609 or January 1610, and recognized by him as satellites of Jupiter ...
) are readily visible from Earth with a hobby telescope.
*
Messier object M4, a magnitude 7.5
globular cluster in the constellation
Scorpius.
*The Roman numeral IV stands for
subgiant in the
Yerkes spectral classification scheme
In astronomy, stellar classification is the classification of stars based on their stellar spectrum, spectral characteristics. Electromagnetic radiation from the star is analyzed by splitting it with a Prism (optics), prism or diffraction grati ...
.
In biology
*Four is the number of
nucleobase types in
DNA and
RNA
Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymeric molecule essential in various biological roles in coding, decoding, regulation and expression of genes. RNA and deoxyribonucleic acid ( DNA) are nucleic acids. Along with lipids, proteins, and carbohydra ...
–
adenine,
guanine,
cytosine,
thymine (
uracil in
RNA
Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymeric molecule essential in various biological roles in coding, decoding, regulation and expression of genes. RNA and deoxyribonucleic acid ( DNA) are nucleic acids. Along with lipids, proteins, and carbohydra ...
).
*Many
chordates have four feet, legs or leglike appendages (
tetrapods).
*The
mammal
Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...
ian
heart consists of four chambers.
*Many
mammal
Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...
s (
Carnivora
Carnivora is a Clade, monophyletic order of Placentalia, placental mammals consisting of the most recent common ancestor of all felidae, cat-like and canidae, dog-like animals, and all descendants of that ancestor. Members of this group are f ...
,
Ungulata
Ungulates ( ) are members of the diverse clade Ungulata which primarily consists of large mammals with hooves. These include odd-toed ungulates such as horses, rhinoceroses, and tapirs; and even-toed ungulates such as cattle, pigs, giraffes, ...
) use four fingers for movement.
*All
insects with wings except
flies and some others have four
wings.
*Insects of the superorder
Endopterygota
Endopterygota (from Ancient Greek ''endon'' 'inner' + ''pterón'' 'wing' + New Latin ''-ota'' 'having'), also known as Holometabola, is a superorder of insects within the infraclass Neoptera that go through distinctive larval, pupal, and adult s ...
, also known as Holometabola, such as butterflies, ants, bees, beetles, fleas, flies, moths, and wasps, undergo
holometabolism
Holometabolism, also called complete metamorphosis, is a form of insect development which includes four life stages: egg, larva, pupa, and imago (or adult). Holometabolism is a synapomorphic trait of all insects in the superorder Endopterygot ...
—complete metamorphism in four stages—from (1) embryo (ovum, egg), to (2) larva (such as grub, caterpillar), then (3) pupa (such as the chrysalis), and finally (4) the imago.
*In the common
ABO blood group system, there are four blood types (A, B, O, AB).
*
Humans have four
canines and four
wisdom teeth.
*The cow's stomach is divided in four digestive compartments: reticulum, rumen, omasum and abomasum.
In chemistry
*
Valency of
carbon (that is basis of life on the Earth) is four. Also because of its tetrahedral crystal bond structure,
diamond (one of the natural allotropes of carbon) is the hardest known naturally occurring material. It is also the valence of
silicon, whose compounds form the majority of the mass of the Earth's crust.
*The
atomic number of
beryllium
*There are four basic states of
matter:
solid,
liquid
A liquid is a nearly incompressible fluid that conforms to the shape of its container but retains a (nearly) constant volume independent of pressure. As such, it is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, gas, a ...
,
gas, and
plasma
Plasma or plasm may refer to:
Science
* Plasma (physics), one of the four fundamental states of matter
* Plasma (mineral), a green translucent silica mineral
* Quark–gluon plasma, a state of matter in quantum chromodynamics
Biology
* Blood pla ...
.
In physics
*
Special relativity and
general relativity treat nature as four-
dimensional:
3D regular
space and one-dimensional
time are treated together and called
spacetime. Also, any event ''E'' has a
light cone composed of four zones of possible communication and cause and effect (outside the light cone is strictly incommunicado).
*There are four
fundamental forces (
electromagnetism,
gravitation
In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the stron ...
, the
weak nuclear force, and the
strong nuclear force).
*In
statistical mechanics
In physics, statistical mechanics is a mathematical framework that applies statistical methods and probability theory to large assemblies of microscopic entities. It does not assume or postulate any natural laws, but explains the macroscopic be ...
, the
four functions inequality
4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures.
In mathematics
Four is the smallest c ...
is an inequality for four functions on a finite
distributive lattice.
In logic and philosophy
*The symbolic meanings of the number four are linked to those of the cross and the square. "Almost from prehistoric times, the number four was employed to signify what was solid, what could be touched and felt. Its relationship to the cross (four points) made it an outstanding symbol of wholeness and universality, a symbol which drew all to itself". Where lines of latitude and longitude intersect, they divide the earth into four proportions. Throughout the world kings and chieftains have been called "lord of the four suns" or "lord of the four quarters of the earth", which is understood to refer to the extent of their powers both territorially and in terms of total control of their subjects' doings.
*The
Square of Opposition
In term logic (a branch of philosophical logic), the square of opposition is a diagram representing the relations between the four basic categorical propositions.
The origin of the square can be traced back to Aristotle's tractate ''On Interpre ...
, in both its Aristotelian version and its
Boolean version, consists of four forms: A ("All ''S'' is ''R''"), I ("Some ''S'' is ''R''"), E ("No ''S'' is ''R''"), and O ("Some ''S'' is not ''R''").
*In regard to whether two given propositions can have the same
truth value, there are four separate logical possibilities: the propositions are ''subalterns'' (possibly both are true, and possibly both are false); ''subcontraries'' (both may be true, but not that both are false); ''contraries'' (both may be false, but not that both are true); or ''contradictories'' (it is not possible that both are true, and it is not possible that both are false).
*
Aristotle held that there are basically
four causes in nature: the
material, the
formal
Formal, formality, informal or informality imply the complying with, or not complying with, some set of requirements (forms, in Ancient Greek). They may refer to:
Dress code and events
* Formal wear, attire for formal events
* Semi-formal attire ...
, the
efficient, and the
final.
*The
Stoics
Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium in Athens in the early 3rd century BCE. It is a philosophy of personal virtue ethics informed by its system of logic and its views on the natural world, asserting that th ...
held with four basic
categories, all viewed as bodies (substantial and insubstantial): (1) ''substance'' in the sense of substrate, primary formless matter; (2) ''quality'', matter's organization to differentiate and individualize something, and coming down to a physical ingredient such as ''pneuma'', breath; (3) ''somehow holding'' (or ''disposed''), as in a posture, state, shape, size, action, and (4) ''somehow holding'' (or ''disposed'') ''toward something,'' as in relative location, familial relation, and so forth.
*
Immanuel Kant expounded a
table of judgments involving four three-way alternatives, in regard to (1) Quantity, (2) Quality, (3) Relation, (4) Modality, and, based thereupon, a
table of four categories, named by the terms just listed, and each with three subcategories.
*
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer ( , ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is best known for his 1818 work ''The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the phenomenal world as the prod ...
's doctoral thesis was ''
On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason''.
*
Franz Brentano held that any major philosophical period has four phases: (1) Creative and rapidly progressing with scientific interest and results; then declining through the remaining phases, (2) practical, (3) increasingly skeptical, and (4) literary, mystical, and scientifically worthless—until philosophy is renewed through a new period's first phase. (See Brentano's essay "The Four Phases of Philosophy and Its Current State" 1895, tr. by Mezei and Smith 1998.)
*
C. S. Peirce
Charles Sanders Peirce ( ; September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914) was an American philosopher, logician, mathematician and scientist who is sometimes known as "the father of pragmatism".
Educated as a chemist and employed as a scientist for t ...
, usually a
trichotomist, discussed four methods for overcoming troublesome uncertainties and achieving secure beliefs: (1) the method of tenacity (policy of sticking to initial belief), (2) the method of authority, (3) the method of congruity (following a fashionable
paradigm
In science and philosophy, a paradigm () is a distinct set of concepts or thought patterns, including theories, research methods, postulates, and standards for what constitute legitimate contributions to a field.
Etymology
''Paradigm'' comes f ...
), and (4) the
fallibilistic, self-correcting method of science (see "
The Fixation of Belief", 1877); and four barriers to inquiry, barriers refused by the fallibilist: (1) assertion of absolute certainty; (2) maintaining that something is unknowable; (3) maintaining that something is inexplicable because absolutely basic or ultimate; (4) holding that perfect exactitude is possible, especially such as to quite preclude unusual and anomalous phenomena (see
F.R.L. irst Rule of Logic
An infrared search and track (IRST) system (sometimes known as infrared sighting and tracking) is a method for detecting and tracking objects which give off infrared radiation, such as the infrared signatures of jet aircraft and helicopters.
IR ...
1899).
*
Paul Weiss built a system involving four modes of being: Actualities (substances in the sense of substantial, spatiotemporally finite beings), Ideality or Possibility (pure normative form), Existence (the dynamic field), and God (unity). (See Weiss's ''Modes of Being'', 1958).
*
Karl Popper
Sir Karl Raimund Popper (28 July 1902 – 17 September 1994) was an Austrian-British philosopher, academic and social commentator. One of the 20th century's most influential philosophers of science, Popper is known for his rejection of the cl ...
outlined a tetradic schema to describe the growth of theories and, via generalization, also the emergence of new behaviors and living organisms: (1) problem, (2) tentative theory, (3) (attempted) error-elimination (especially by way of critical discussion), and (4) new problem(s). (See Popper's ''Objective Knowledge'', 1972, revised 1979.)
*
John Boyd (military strategist) made his key concept the decision cycle or
OODA loop, consisting of four stages: (1) observation (data intake through the senses), (2) orientation (analysis and synthesis of data), (3) decision, and (4) action. Boyd held that his decision cycle has philosophical generality, though for strategists the point remains that, through swift decisions, one can disrupt an opponent's decision cycle.
*
Richard McKeon
Richard McKeon (; April 26, 1900 – March 31, 1985) was an American philosopher and longtime professor at the University of Chicago. His ideas formed the basis for the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Life, times, and influences
McKeo ...
outlined four classes (each with four subclasses) of modes of philosophical inquiry: (1) Modes of Being (Being); (2) Modes of Thought (That which is); (3) Modes of Fact (Existence); (4) Modes of Simplicity (Experience)—and, corresponding to them, four classes (each with four subclasses) of philosophical semantics: Principles, Methods, Interpretations, and Selections. (See McKeon's "Philosophic Semantics and Philosophic Inquiry" in ''Freedom and History and Other Essays'', 1989.)
*
Jonathan Lowe
Edward Jonathan Lowe (; 24 March 1950 – 5 January 2014), usually cited as E. J. Lowe but known personally as Jonathan Lowe, was a British philosopher and academic. He was Professor of Philosophy at Durham University.
Biography
Lowe was bor ...
(E.J. Lowe) argues in ''The Four-Category Ontology'', 2006, for four categories: ''kinds'' (substantial universals), ''attributes'' (relational universals and property-universals), ''objects'' (substantial particulars), and ''modes'' (relational particulars and property-particulars, also known as "
tropes
Trope or tropes may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Trope (cinema), a cinematic convention for conveying a concept
* Trope (literature), a figure of speech or common literary device
* Trope (music), any of a variety of different things ...
"). (See Lowe's "Recent Advances in Metaphysics," 2001
Eprint
*Four opposed camps of the morality and nature of evil:
moral absolutism
Moral absolutism is an ethical view that some (potentially all) actions are intrinsically right or wrong. Stealing, for instance, might be considered to be always immoral, even if done for the well-being of others (e.g., stealing food to feed a s ...
,
amoralism
Moral nihilism (also known as ethical nihilism) is the meta-ethical view that nothing is morally right or wrong.
Moral nihilism is distinct from moral relativism, which allows for actions to be wrong relative to a particular culture or individ ...
,
moral relativism
Moral relativism or ethical relativism (often reformulated as relativist ethics or relativist morality) is used to describe several philosophical positions concerned with the differences in moral judgments across different peoples and cultures. ...
, and
moral universalism
Moral universalism (also called moral objectivism) is the meta-ethical position that some system of ethics, or a universal ethic, applies universally, that is, for "all similarly situated individuals", regardless of culture, race, sex, religio ...
.
In technology
*The
resin identification code used in recycling to identify
low-density polyethylene.
*Most
furniture
Furniture refers to movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (tables), storing items, eating and/or working with an item, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Fu ...
has four legs – tables, chairs, etc.
*The
four color process
Color printing or colour printing is the reproduction of an image or text in color (as opposed to simpler black and white
or monochrome printing). Any natural scene or color photograph can be optically and physiologically dissected into three ...
(
CMYK) is used for
printing.
*Wide use of
rectangle
In Euclidean plane geometry, a rectangle is a quadrilateral with four right angles. It can also be defined as: an equiangular quadrilateral, since equiangular means that all of its angles are equal (360°/4 = 90°); or a parallelogram containi ...
s (with four angles and four sides) because they have effective form and capability for close adjacency to each other (houses, rooms, tables, bricks, sheets of paper, screens, film frames).
*In the
Rich Text Format
)
As an example, the following RTF code
would be rendered as follows:
This is some bold text.
Character encoding
A standard RTF file can only consist of 7-bit ASCII characters, but can use escape sequences to encode other characters. Th ...
specification, language code 4 is for the
Chinese language. Codes for regional variants of Chinese are congruent to .
*
Credit card machines have four-twelve function keys.
*On most phones, the 4 key is associated with the letters
G,
H, and
I, but on the
BlackBerry Pearl, it is the key for
D and
F.
*On many
computer keyboards, the "4" key may also be used to type the
dollar sign ($) if the
shift key is held down.
*It is the number of
bits in a
nibble
In computing, a nibble (occasionally nybble, nyble, or nybl to match the spelling of byte) is a four-bit aggregation, or half an octet. It is also known as half-byte or tetrade. In a networking or telecommunication context, the nibble is oft ...
, equivalent to half a
byte
*In
internet slang
Internet slang (also called Internet shorthand, cyber-slang, netspeak, digispeak or chatspeak) is a non-standard or unofficial form of language used by people on the Internet to communicate to one another. An example of Internet slang is "LOL" m ...
, "4" can replace the word "for" (as "four" and "for" are pronounced similarly). For example, typing "4u" instead of "for you".
*In
Leetspeak, "4" may be used to replace the letter "A".
*The
TCP/IP stack consists of four layers.
In transport
*Many
internal combustion engines are called
four-stroke
A four-stroke (also four-cycle) engine is an internal combustion (IC) engine in which the piston completes four separate strokes while turning the crankshaft. A stroke refers to the full travel of the piston along the cylinder, in either directio ...
engines because they complete one thermodynamic cycle in four distinct steps: Intake, compression, power, and exhaust.
*Most
vehicles, including
motor vehicle
A motor vehicle, also known as motorized vehicle or automotive vehicle, is a self-propelled land vehicle, commonly wheeled, that does not operate on Track (rail transport), rails (such as trains or trams) and is used for the transportation of pe ...
s, and particularly
cars/automobiles and light
commercial vehicles have four road
wheel
A wheel is a circular component that is intended to rotate on an axle Bearing (mechanical), bearing. The wheel is one of the key components of the wheel and axle which is one of the Simple machine, six simple machines. Wheels, in conjunction wi ...
s.
*"
Quattro
Quattro is Italian for the number four.
Quattro may also refer to:
People
* "Quattro", a nickname of A. J. Foyt IV
Fictional characters
* Quattro Vageena or Quattro Bageena, an alias of Char Aznable in the ''Mobile Suit Gundam'' anime series
...
", meaning four in the Italian language, is used by
Audi as a trademark to indicate that
all-wheel drive (AWD) technologies are used on Audi-branded cars. The word "Quattro" was initially used by Audi in 1980 in its original 4WD coupé, the
Audi Quattro. Audi also has a privately held subsidiary company called
quattro GmbH.
*
List of highways numbered 4
In sports
* In the
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...
, the top level of
Australian rules football
Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...
, each team is allowed 4 "
interchanges
Interchange may refer to:
Transport
* Interchange (road), a collection of ramps, exits, and entrances between two or more highways
* Interchange (freight rail), the transfer of freight cars between railroad companies
* Interchange station, a rai ...
" (substitute players), who can be freely substituted at any time, subject to a limit on the total number of substitutions.
*In
baseball:
**There are four bases in the game:
first base
A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...
,
second base,
third base, and
home plate; to score a run, an offensive player must complete, in the sequence shown, a circuit of those four bases.
** When a batter receives four pitches that the umpire declares to be "
balls" in a single at-bat, a
base on balls
A base on balls (BB), also known as a walk, occurs in baseball when a batter receives four pitches that the umpire calls '' balls'', and is in turn awarded first base without the possibility of being called out. The base on balls is defined in Se ...
, informally known as a "walk", is awarded, with the batter sent to first base.
**For scoring, number 4 is assigned to the
second baseman.
**Four is the most runs that can be scored on any single at bat, whereby all three baserunners and the batter score (the most common being via a
grand slam).
**The fourth batter in the batting lineup is called the
cleanup hitter
In baseball, a cleanup hitter is the fourth hitter in the batting order. The cleanup hitter is traditionally the team's most powerful hitter. His job is to "clean up the bases", i.e., drive in base runners.
Theory
The thinking behind the us ...
.
*In
basketball, the number four is used to designate the
power forward position, often referred to as "the four spot" or "the four".
*In
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
, a four is a specific type of scoring event, whereby the ball crosses the
boundary after touching the ground at least one time, scoring four runs. Taking four wickets in four consecutive balls is typically referred to as a double hat trick (two consecutive, overlapping hat tricks).
*In
American Football teams get four downs to reach the line of gain.
*In
rowing, a four refers to a
boat for four rowers, with or without
coxswain. In rowing nomenclature, 4− represents a coxless four and 4+ represents a coxed four.
*In
rugby league:
** A
try is worth 4 points.
** One of the two starting centres wears the jersey number 4. (An exception to this rule is the
Super League
The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...
, which uses static squad numbering.)
*In
rugby union:
** One of the two starting
locks wears the jersey number 4.
** In the standard
bonus points system, a point is awarded in the league standings to a team that scores at least 4 tries in a match, regardless of the match result.
In other fields
* The phrase "
four-letter word" is used to describe many
swear words in the
English language.
*Four is the only number whose name in English has the same number of letters as its value.
*Four (, formal writing: ,
pinyin sì) is considered an
unlucky number
Numerology (also known as arithmancy) is the belief in an occult, divine or mystical relationship between a number and one or more coinciding events. It is also the study of the numerical value, via an alphanumeric system, of the letters in ...
in
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
,
Korean,
Vietnamese and
Japanese cultures mostly in Eastern Asia because it sounds like the word "death" (,
pinyin sǐ). To avoid complaints from people with tetraphobia, many numbered product lines skip the "four": e.g.
Nokia cell phones (there was no series beginning with a 4 until the
Nokia 4.2 The Nokia 4.2 is a Nokia-branded entry-level smartphone developed by HMD Global, running the Android operating system, which was released on 14 May 2019.
Overview
It features 5.71" 19:9 720x1520 pixels IPS LCD display, an octa-core Qualcomm Sn ...
),
Palm PDAs, etc. Some buildings skip floor 4 or replace the number with the letter "F", particularly in heavily Asian areas. ''See
tetraphobia'' and ''
Numbers in Chinese culture''.
*In Pythagorean
numerology
Numerology (also known as arithmancy) is the belief in an occult, divine or mystical relationship between a number and one or more coinciding events. It is also the study of the numerical value, via an alphanumeric system, of the letters in ...
(a
pseudocience
Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable claim ...
) the number 4 represents security and stability.
*The number of characters in a canonical
four-character idiom.
*In the
NATO phonetic alphabet, the digit 4 is called "fower".
*In
astrology,
Cancer is the 4th
astrological sign of the
Zodiac.
*In
Tarot,
The Emperor
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in E ...
is the fourth
trump or
Major Arcana
The Major Arcana are the named or numbered cards in a cartomantic tarot pack, the name being originally given by occultists to the trump cards of a normal tarot pack used for playing card games. There are usually 22 such cards in a standard 78-car ...
card.
*In ''
Tetris'', a game named for the Greek word for 4, every shape in the game is formed of 4 blocks each.
*4 represents the number of Justices on the
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
necessary to grant a writ of
certiorari
In law, ''certiorari'' is a court process to seek judicial review of a decision of a lower court or government agency. ''Certiorari'' comes from the name of an English prerogative writ, issued by a superior court to direct that the record of ...
(i.e., agree to hear a case; it is one less than the number necessary to render a majority decision) at the court's current size.
*Number Four is a character in the book series ''
Lorien Legacies.''
*In the
performing arts
The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Perform ...
, the
fourth wall is an imaginary barrier which separates the audience from the performers, and is "broken" when performers communicate directly to the audience.
In music
*In
written music,
common time is constructed of four beats per measure and a quarter note receives one beat.
*In popular or
modern music, the most common
time signature is also founded on four beats, i.e., 4/4 having four
quarter note beats.
*The common
major scale is built on two sets of four notes (e.g., CDEF, GABC), where the first and last notes create an
octave
In music, an octave ( la, octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been refer ...
interval (a pair-of-four relationship).
*The interval of a
perfect fourth is a foundational element of many genres of music, represented in
music theory
Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory". The first is the "rudiments", that are needed to understand music notation (ke ...
as the
tonic and
subdominant
In music, the subdominant is the fourth tonal degree () of the diatonic scale. It is so called because it is the same distance ''below'' the tonic as the dominant is ''above'' the tonicin other words, the tonic is the dominant of the subdomina ...
relationship. Four is also embodied within the
circle of fifths (also known as circle of fourths), which reveals the interval of four in more active harmonic contexts.
*The typical number of movements in a
symphony
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning com ...
.
*The number of completed, numbered symphonies by
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid- Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped wit ...
.
*The number of strings on a
violin, a
viola, a
cello,
double bass, a
cuatro, a typical
bass guitar, and a
ukulele, and the number of string pairs on a
mandolin
A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...
.
*"Four calling birds" is the gift on the fourth day of Christmas in the carol "
The Twelve Days of Christmas
The Twelve Days of Christmas, also known as Twelvetide, is a festive Christian season celebrating the Nativity of Jesus. In some Western ecclesiastical traditions, "Christmas Day" is considered the "First Day of Christmas" and the Twelve Days a ...
".
Groups of four
*
Big Four (disambiguation)
*Four basic operations of arithmetic:
addition
Addition (usually signified by the Plus and minus signs#Plus sign, plus symbol ) is one of the four basic Operation (mathematics), operations of arithmetic, the other three being subtraction, multiplication and Division (mathematics), division. ...
,
subtraction
Subtraction is an arithmetic operation that represents the operation of removing objects from a collection. Subtraction is signified by the minus sign, . For example, in the adjacent picture, there are peaches—meaning 5 peaches with 2 taken ...
,
multiplication
Multiplication (often denoted by the cross symbol , by the mid-line dot operator , by juxtaposition, or, on computers, by an asterisk ) is one of the four elementary mathematical operations of arithmetic, with the other ones being additi ...
,
division.
*
Greek classical elements (
fire,
air,
water,
earth).
*
Four seasons:
spring
Spring(s) may refer to:
Common uses
* Spring (season), a season of the year
* Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy
* Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water
* Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a ...
,
summer
Summer is the hottest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, the earliest sunrise and latest sunset occurs, daylight hours are longest and dark hours are shortest, wit ...
,
autumn
Autumn, also known as fall in American English and Canadian English, is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September ( Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Sou ...
,
winter.
*
The Four Seasons (disambiguation)
The Four Seasons, originally referring to the traditional seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter (typical of a temperate climate), may refer to:
Music
* ''The Four Seasons'' (Vivaldi), a 1725 set of four violin concertos by Antonio Vival ...
*A
leap year generally occurs every four years.
*Approximately four weeks (4 times 7 days) to a lunar month (
synodic month = 29.53 days). Thus the number four is universally an integral part of primitive sacred calendars.
*Four weeks of
Advent
Advent is a Christian season of preparation for the Nativity of Christ at Christmas. It is the beginning of the liturgical year in Western Christianity.
The name was adopted from Latin "coming; arrival", translating Greek ''parousia''.
In ...
(and four
Advent candles on the
Advent wreath).
*Four
cardinal directions:
north,
south
South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west.
Etymology
The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...
,
east,
west.
*
Four Temperaments
The four temperament theory is a proto-psychological theory which suggests that there are four fundamental personality types: sanguine, choleric, melancholic, and phlegmatic. Most formulations include the possibility of mixtures among the types w ...
:
sanguine,
choleric
The four temperament theory is a proto-psychological theory which suggests that there are four fundamental personality types: sanguine, choleric, melancholic, and phlegmatic. Most formulations include the possibility of mixtures among the types w ...
,
melancholic
Melancholia or melancholy (from el, µέλαινα χολή ',Burton, Bk. I, p. 147 meaning black bile) is a concept found throughout History of medicine#Greece and Roman Empire, ancient, medieval medicine of Western Europe, medieval and Lear ...
,
phlegmatic
The four temperament theory is a proto-psychological theory which suggests that there are four fundamental personality types: sanguine, choleric, melancholic, and phlegmatic. Most formulations include the possibility of mixtures among the types w ...
.
*
Four Humors
Humorism, the humoral theory, or humoralism, was a system of medicine detailing a supposed makeup and workings of the human body, adopted by Ancient Greek and Roman physicians and philosophers.
Humorism began to fall out of favor in the 1850s ...
:
blood,
yellow bile,
black bile,
phlegm.
*
Four Great Ancient Capitals of China
This is a list of historical capitals of China.
Four Great Ancient Capitals
There are traditionally four major historical capitals of China referred to as the "Four Great Ancient Capitals of China" (). The four are Beijing, Nanjing, Luoyang and X ...
.
*
Four-corner method
The Four-Corner Method () is a character-input method used for encoding Chinese characters into either a computer or a manual typewriter, using four or five numerical digits per character. The Four-Corner Method is also known as the Four-Corner ...
.
*
Four Asian Tigers, referring to the economies of
Hong Kong,
Taiwan,
South Korea, and
Singapore
*
Cardinal principles.
*
Four cardinal virtues
The cardinal virtues are four virtues of mind and character in both classical philosophy and Christian theology. They are prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. They form a virtue theory of ethics. The term ''cardinal'' comes from the La ...
: justice, prudence, temperance, fortitude.
*Four
suits of
playing cards: hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades.
*Four
nations of the
United Kingdom: England,
Wales,
Scotland,
Northern Ireland.
*Four
provinces of Ireland
There have been four Provinces of Ireland: Connacht (Connaught), Leinster, Munster, and Ulster. The Irish language, Irish word for this territorial division, , meaning "fifth part", suggests that there were once five, and at times Kingdom_of_ ...
:
Munster
Munster ( gle, an Mhumhain or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, in the south of Ireland. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" ( ga, rí ruirech). Following the ...
,
Ulster,
Leinster,
Connacht.
*Four estates:
politics,
administration,
judiciary,
journalism. Especially in the expression "
Fourth Estate", which means journalism.
*
Four Corners
The Four Corners is a region of the Southwestern United States consisting of the southwestern corner of Colorado, southeastern corner of Utah, northeastern corner of Arizona, and northwestern corner of New Mexico. The Four Corners area ...
is the only location in the United States where four
states come together at a single point:
Colorado,
Utah,
New Mexico, and
Arizona.
*
Four Evangelists –
Matthew
Matthew may refer to:
* Matthew (given name)
* Matthew (surname)
* ''Matthew'' (ship), the replica of the ship sailed by John Cabot in 1497
* ''Matthew'' (album), a 2000 album by rapper Kool Keith
* Matthew (elm cultivar), a cultivar of the Ch ...
,
Mark,
Luke
People
*Luke (given name), a masculine given name (including a list of people and characters with the name)
*Luke (surname) (including a list of people and characters with the name)
*Luke the Evangelist, author of the Gospel of Luke. Also known as ...
, and
John
* Four
Doctors of Western Church – Saint
Gregory the Great, Saint
Ambrose
Ambrose of Milan ( la, Aurelius Ambrosius; ), venerated as Saint Ambrose, ; lmo, Sant Ambroeus . was a theologian and statesman who served as Bishop of Milan from 374 to 397. He expressed himself prominently as a public figure, fiercely promo ...
, Saint
Augustine, and Saint
Jerome
* Four Doctors of Eastern Church –
Saint John Chrysostom, Saint Basil the Great, and Gregory of Nazianzus and Saint Athanasius
* Four
Galilean moons
The Galilean moons (), or Galilean satellites, are the four largest moons of Jupiter: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. They were first seen by Galileo Galilei in December 1609 or January 1610, and recognized by him as satellites of Jupiter ...
of Jupiter – Io (moon), Io, Europa (moon), Europa, Ganymede (moon), Ganymede, and Callisto (moon), Callisto
* The
Gang of Four
The Gang of Four () was a Maoist political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials. They came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) and were later charged with a series of treasonous crimes. The gang ...
was a Communist Party of China, Chinese communist political faction.
* The Fantastic Four: Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Woman, The Human Torch, The Thing.
* The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael
* The Beatles were also known as the "Fab Four": John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr.
* Gang of Four (band), Gang of Four is a British post-punk rock and roll, rock band formed in the late 1970s.
* Four rivers in the Garden of Eden (Book of Genesis, Genesis 2:10–14): Pishon (perhaps the Jaxartes or Syr Darya), Gihon (perhaps the Oxus or Amu Darya), Hiddekel (Tigris), and P'rat (Euphrates).
* There are also four years in a single Olympiad (duration between the Olympic Games). Many major international sports competitions follow this cycle, among them the FIFA World Cup and its FIFA Women's World Cup, women's version, the FIBA World Championships for FIBA World Championship, men and FIBA World Championship for Women, women, and the Rugby World Cup.
* There are four limbs on the human body.
* Four Houses of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter series: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin.
* Four known continents of the world in the ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' series: Westeros, Essos, Sothoryos, Ulthos.
* Each Grand Prix in Nintendo's ''Mario Kart'' series is divided into four cups and each cup is divided into four courses. The Mushroom Cup, Flower Cup, Star Cup, and Special Cup make up the Nitro Grand Prix, while the Shell Cup, Banana Cup, Leaf Cup, and the Lightning Cup make up the Retro Grand Prix.
See also
*
List of highways numbered 4
References
*Wells, D. ''The Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Numbers'' London: Penguin Group. (1987): 55–58
External links
Marijn.Org on Why is everything four? by Penelope Merritt at samuel-beckett.net
The Number 4The Positive Integer 4
{{Authority control
Integers
4 (number),