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24 (twenty-four) is the
natural number In mathematics, the natural numbers are those numbers used for counting (as in "there are ''six'' coins on the table") and ordering (as in "this is the ''third'' largest city in the country"). Numbers used for counting are called '' cardinal ...
following 23 and preceding 25. The SI prefix for 1024 is yotta (Y), and for 10−24 (i.e., the reciprocal of 1024) yocto (y). These numbers are the largest and smallest number to receive an SI prefix to date.


In mathematics

24 is an even
composite number A composite number is a positive integer that can be formed by multiplying two smaller positive integers. Equivalently, it is a positive integer that has at least one divisor other than 1 and itself. Every positive integer is composite, prime, ...
, with 2 and 3 as its distinct prime factors. It is the first number of the form 2''q'', where ''q'' is an odd prime. It is the smallest number with exactly eight positive
divisor In mathematics, a divisor of an integer n, also called a factor of n, is an integer m that may be multiplied by some integer to produce n. In this case, one also says that n is a multiple of m. An integer n is divisible or evenly divisible by ...
s: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, and 24; thus, it is a highly composite number, having more divisors than any smaller number. Furthermore, it is an abundant number, since the sum of its
proper divisor In mathematics, a divisor of an integer n, also called a factor of n, is an integer m that may be multiplied by some integer to produce n. In this case, one also says that n is a multiple of m. An integer n is divisible or evenly divisible by ...
s ( 36) is greater than itself, as well as a superabundant number.


In number theory and algebra

*24 is the smallest 5-
hemiperfect number In number theory, a hemiperfect number is a positive integer with a half-integer abundancy index. In other words, ''σ''(''n'')/''n'' = ''k''/2 for an odd integer ''k'', where ''σ''(''n'') is the divisor function, the sum of all positive divisors o ...
, as it has a half-integer abundancy index: *:1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 6 + 8 + 12 + 24 = 60 =  × 24 *24 is a semiperfect number, since adding up all the proper divisors of 24 except 4 and 8 gives 24. *24 is a practical number, since all smaller positive integers than 24 can be represented as sums of distinct divisors of 24. *24 is a Harshad number, since it is divisible by the sum of its digits in decimal. *24 is a highly totient number, as there are 10 solutions to the equation ''φ''(''x'') = 24, which is more than any integer below 24. 144 (the
square In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90-degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length a ...
of 12) and
576 __NOTOC__ Year 576 ( DLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 576 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era ...
(the square of 24) are also highly totient. *24 is a polite number, an
amenable number An amenable number is a positive integer for which there exists a multiset of as many integers as the original number that both add up to the original number and when multiplied together give the original number. To put it algebraically, for a posi ...
, an idoneal number, and a tribonacci number. *24 forms a Ruth-Aaron pair with 25, since the sums of distinct prime factors of each are equal ( 5). *24 is a compositorial, as it is the product of composite numbers up to 6. *24 is a pernicious number, since its Hamming weight in its binary representation (11000) is prime (2). *24 is the third nonagonal number. *24 is a congruent number, as 24 is the area of a right triangle with a rational number of sides. *24 is a semi-meandric number, where an order-6 semi-meander intersects an oriented ray in R2 at 24 points. *Subtracting 1 from any of its divisors (except 1 and 2 but including itself) yields a
prime number A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only way ...
; 24 is the largest number with this property. *24 is the largest
integer An integer is the number zero (), a positive natural number (, , , etc.) or a negative integer with a minus sign ( −1, −2, −3, etc.). The negative numbers are the additive inverses of the corresponding positive numbers. In the language ...
that is divisible by all natural numbers no larger than its square root. *The product of any four consecutive numbers is divisible by 24. This is because, among any four consecutive numbers, there must be two even numbers, one of which is a multiple of four, and there must be at least one multiple of three. * 24 = 4!, the factorial of 4. It is the largest factorial that does not contain a trailing zero at the end of its digits (since factorial of any integer greater than 4 is divisible by both 2 and 5), and represents the number of ways to order 4 distinct items: *:(1,2,3,4), (1,2,4,3), (1,3,2,4), (1,3,4,2), (1,4,2,3), (1,4,3,2), (2,1,3,4), (2,1,4,3), (2,3,1,4), (2,3,4,1), (2,4,1,3), (2,4,3,1), (3,1,2,4), (3,1,4,2), (3,2,1,4), (3,2,4,1), (3,4,1,2), (3,4,2,1), (4,1,2,3), (4,1,3,2), (4,2,1,3), (4,2,3,1), (4,3,1,2), (4,3,2,1). *24 is the only nontrivial solution to the cannonball problem; that is, 12 + 22 + 32 + … + 242 is a
perfect square ''Perfect Square'' is a 2004 concert film of the alternative rock Musical ensemble, band R.E.M. (band), R.E.M., filmed on July 19, 2003, at the bowling green, Bowling Green in Wiesbaden, Germany. It was released by Warner Reprise Video on March 9, ...
(702). *24 is the only number whose divisors — 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 24 — are exactly those numbers ''n'' for which every invertible element of the commutative ring Z/''n''Z is a square root of 1. It follows that the multiplicative group of invertible elements (Z/24Z)× = is isomorphic to the additive group (Z/2Z)3. This fact plays a role in monstrous moonshine. *:It follows that any number ''n'' relatively prime to 24 (that is, any number of the form 6''K'' ± 1), and in particular any prime ''n'' greater than 3, has the property that ''n''2 – 1 is divisible by 24. *The modular discriminant is proportional to the 24th power of the
Dedekind eta function In mathematics, the Dedekind eta function, named after Richard Dedekind, is a modular form of weight 1/2 and is a function defined on the upper half-plane of complex numbers, where the imaginary part is positive. It also occurs in bosonic string ...
: .


In geometry

*24 degrees is the measure of the central angle and external angle of a pentadecagon. *An icositetragon is a regular polygon with 24 sides and Dih24 symmetry of order 48. It can fill a plane-vertex alongside a
triangle A triangle is a polygon with three edges and three vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, any three points, when non- colli ...
and octagon. *24 is the Euler characteristic of a K3 surface: a general elliptic K3 surface has exactly 24 singular fibers. *24 is the order of the octahedral group — the group of rotations of the regular octahedron and the group of rotations of the cube. The binary octahedral group is a subgroup of the 3-sphere ''S''3 consisting of the 24 elements of the binary tetrahedral group along with the 24 elements contained in its coset . These two cosets each form the vertices of a self-dual 24-cell, and the two 24-cells are dual to each other. (See point below on 24-cell). *24 is the count of different
elements Element or elements may refer to: Science * Chemical element, a pure substance of one type of atom * Heating element, a device that generates heat by electrical resistance * Orbital elements, parameters required to identify a specific orbit of ...
in various uniform polyhedron solids. Within the family of Archimedean and Catalan solids, there are 24
edges Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed by ...
in a cuboctahedron and rhombic dodecahedron, 24 vertices in a rhombicuboctahedron, truncated cube, truncated octahedron, and snub cube, as well as 24 faces in a deltoidal icositetrahedron, tetrakis hexahedron, triakis octahedron, and
pentagonal icositetrahedron In geometry, a pentagonal icositetrahedron or pentagonal icosikaitetrahedron is a Catalan solid which is the dual of the snub cube. In crystallography it is also called a gyroid. It has two distinct forms, which are mirror images (or " enantio ...
. The cube-octahedron compound, with a rhombic dodecahedral convex hull, is the first stellation of the cuboctahedron, with a total of 24 edges. *:There are 12 non-prismatic uniform polyhedron compounds ( UC01, UC03, UC08, UC10, UC12, UC30, UC42, UC46, UC48, UC50, UC52, and UC54) and 12 uniform star polyhedra ( U03, U13, U14, U15, U17, U18, U19, U21, U36, U37, U41, and U58) with a vertex, edge, or face count of 24. The great disnub dirhombidodecahedron, also called ''Skilling's figure,'' is a degenerate uniform star polyhedron with a Euler characteristic of 24, when pairs of coinciding edges are considered to be single edges. *:Finally, 6 Johnson solids ( J17, J27, J37, J45, J61, and J90) also have vertex, edge, or face counts of 24. The
pseudo great rhombicuboctahedron In geometry, the pseudo great rhombicuboctahedron is one of the two pseudo uniform polyhedra, the other being the convex elongated square gyrobicupola or pseudo rhombicuboctahedron. It has the same vertex figure as the nonconvex great rhombicuboc ...
, one of two known pseudo-uniform polyhedra alongside the elongated square gyrobicupola (J37), has 24 vertices. *The tesseract has 24 two-dimensional faces (which are all squares). Its dual four-dimensional polytope is the 16-cell, which has 24
edges Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed by ...
. *The 24-cell, with 24 octahedral cells and 24 vertices, is a self-dual convex regular 4-polytope. It possesses 576 (24×24) rotational symmetries and 1152 isometries altogether. It tiles 4-dimensional space in a 24-cell honeycomb, in which each 24-cell is surrounded by 24 24-cells. *:The vertices of the 24-cell honeycomb can be chosen so that in 4-dimensional space, identified with the ring of
quaternions 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 ...
, they are precisely the elements of the subring generated by the binary tetrahedral group as represented by the set of 24 quaternions \ in the D4 lattice. Known as the ring of Hurwitz integral quaternions, this set of 24 quaternions forms the set of vertices of a single 24-cell, all lying on the sphere ''S''3 of radius one centered as the origin. ''S''3 is the Lie group '' Sp(1)'' of unit quaternions (isomorphic to the Lie groups '' SU(2)'' and '' Spin(3)''), and so the binary tetrahedral group — of order 24 — is a subgroup of ''S''3. *:The 24 vertices of the 24-cell are contained in the regular complex polygon 44, or of symmetry order 1152, as well as 24 4-edges of 24 octahedral cells (of 48). Its representation in the F4 Coxeter plane contains two rings of 12 vertices each. *: Truncations, runcinations, and omnitruncations of the 24-cell yield polychora whose Petrie polygons are 24-sided icositetragons; i.e., within the truncated 24-cell, runcinated 24-cell, and
omnitruncated 24-cell In four-dimensional geometry, a runcinated 24-cell is a convex uniform 4-polytope, being a runcination (a 3rd order truncation) of the regular 24-cell. There are 3 unique degrees of runcinations of the 24-cell including with permutations truncati ...
, amongst others. *24 is the kissing number in 4-dimensional space: the maximum number of unit spheres that can all touch another unit sphere without overlapping. (The centers of 24 such spheres form the vertices of a 24-cell). *The Barnes–Wall lattice contains 24 lattices. *In 24 dimensions there are 24 even positive definite unimodular lattices, called the Niemeier lattices. One of these is the exceptional Leech lattice which has many surprising properties; due to its existence, the answers to many problems such as the kissing number problem and densest lattice sphere-packing problem are known in 24 dimensions but not in many lower dimensions. The Leech lattice is closely related to the equally nice length-24 binary Golay code and the Steiner system ''S''(5,8,24) and the Mathieu group ''M''24. (One construction of the Leech lattice is possible because 12 + 22 + 32 + ... + 242 = 702). *24 is the order of the cyclic group equal to the stable 3-stem in homotopy groups of spheres: ''n''+3(''S''''n'') = Z/24Z for all ''n'' ≥ 5.


In science

* The atomic number of
chromium Chromium is a chemical element with the symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in group 6. It is a steely-grey, lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal. Chromium metal is valued for its high corrosion resistance and h ...
. * The average number of hours in a day (on
Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surf ...
), also known as a mean solar day. * 24! is an approximation (exceeding by just over 3%) of the Avogadro constant.


In religion

*The number of books in the Tanakh. *In Christian apocalyptic literature it represents the complete Church, being the sum of the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12
Apostles An apostle (), in its literal sense, is an emissary, from Ancient Greek ἀπόστολος (''apóstolos''), literally "one who is sent off", from the verb ἀποστέλλειν (''apostéllein''), "to send off". The purpose of such sending ...
of the Lamb of God. For example, in '' The Book of Revelation'': "Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads." *Number of Tirthankaras in
Jainism Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle being ...
. *Number of spokes in the Ashok Chakra.


In music

*There are a total of 24 major and minor keys in Western tonal music, not counting enharmonic equivalents. Therefore, for collections of pieces written in each key, the number of pieces in such a collection; e.g., Chopin's 24 Preludes.


In sports

*
Four-and-Twenty Four-and-Twenty (foaled 1958 in Kentucky) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse. The name comes from the lyrics to ''Sing a Song of Sixpence''. Background Four-and-Twenty was bred and raced by the Alberta Ranches, Ltd. partnership of Max Bell, ...
was an American racehorse. * In
association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is t ...
: ** The
FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the ' (FIFA), the ...
final tournament featured 24 men's national teams from 1982 to 1994. ** The
FIFA Women's World Cup The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior women's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's international governing bo ...
final tournament featured 24 national teams in 2015 and 2019. * In
basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...
: ** In the NBA, the time on a shot clock is 24 seconds.


In other fields

24 is also: * The number of
bit The bit is the most basic unit of information in computing and digital communications. The name is a portmanteau of binary digit. The bit represents a logical state with one of two possible values. These values are most commonly represented a ...
s a computer needs to represent 24-bit color images (for a maximum of 16,777,216 colours—but greater numbers of bits provide more accurate colors). * The number of karats representing 100% pure
gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...
. * The number of cycles in the Chinese solar year. * The number of years from the start of the Cold War until the signing of the
Seabed Arms Control Treaty The Seabed Arms Control Treaty (or Seabed Treaty, formally the Treaty on the Prohibition of the Emplacement of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction on the Sea-Bed and the Ocean Floor and in the Subsoil thereof) is a multilater ...
, which banned the placing of nuclear weapons on the ocean floor within certain coastal distances. * The number of frames per second at which motion picture film is usually projected, as this is sufficient to allow for persistence of vision. * The number of letters in both the modern and classical
Greek alphabet The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BCE. It is derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and was the earliest known alphabetic script to have distinct letters for vowels as ...
. For the latter reason, also the number of chapters or "books" into which
Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the '' Iliad'' and the '' Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of ...
's ''
Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major Ancient Greek literature, ancient Greek Epic poetry, epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by moder ...
'' and ''
Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the '' Odys ...
'' came to be divided. * The number of runes in the Elder Futhark. * The number of points on a backgammon board. * A children's mathematical game involving the use of any of the four standard operations on four numbers on a card to get 24 (see 24 Game). * The maximum number of Knight Companions in the
Order of the Garter The Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry founded by Edward III of England in 1348. It is the most senior order of knighthood in the British honours system, outranked in precedence only by the Victoria Cross and the Georg ...
. * The number of the French department
Dordogne Dordogne ( , or ; ; oc, Dordonha ) is a large rural department in Southwestern France, with its prefecture in Périgueux. Located in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region roughly half-way between the Loire Valley and the Pyrenees, it is named ...
. * Four and twenty is the number of blackbirds baked in a pie in the traditional English nursery rhyme " Sing a Song of Sixpence".


References


External links


My Favorite Numbers: 24
John C. Baez John Carlos Baez (; born June 12, 1961) is an American mathematical physics, mathematical physicist and a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) in Riverside, California, Riverside, California. He has worked o ...
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