40 (number)

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40 (forty) is the natural number following 39 and preceding 41.

Despite being related to the word "four" (4), 40 is spelled as "forty", not "fourty". The letters of the word "forty" are in alphabetical order; this is the only number that has this linguistic property in English.

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

Cardinal 40
forty
Ordinal 40th
fortieth
Numeral system quadragesimal
Factorization 2^3 \cdot 5
Divisors 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 10, 20, 40
Roman numeral XL
Roman numeral (Unicode) XL, xl
Binary 101000
Octal 50
Duodecimal 34
Hexadecimal 28
Look up forty in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Contents

[edit] In mathematics

Forty is an octagonal number, and as the sum of the first four pentagonal numbers, it is a pentagonal pyramidal number. Adding up some subsets of its divisors (e.g., 1, 4, 5, 10 and 20) gives 40, hence 40 is a semiperfect number.

Given 40, the Mertens function returns 0. 40 is the smallest number n with exactly 9 solutions to the equation φ(x) = n.

Forty is the number of n-queens problem solutions for n = 7.

Since the greatest prime factor of 402 + 1 = 1601 is prime and obviously more than 40 twice, 40 is a Størmer number.

40 is a repdigit in base 3 (1111) and a Harshad number in base 10.

[edit] In science

[edit] Astronomy

[edit] In religion

The number 40 is significant in Jewish, Christian, Islamic, and other Middle Eastern traditions; it can also represent a rough calculation, a huge sum of units, or simply put, a lot of something.

  • "Forty days and forty nights" describes the period for which rain fell during Noah's flood
  • "Forty days" was the length of the period that the twelve spies explored the Promised Land (Numbers 13)
  • "Forty years" was the length of Israel's wandering in the wilderness. This period of years represents a generation, that is, the time it takes for a new generation to arise.
  • Moses' life is divided into three 40-year segments, separated by his fleeing from Egypt, and his return to lead the people out.
  • Several Israelite leaders and kings are said to have ruled for "forty years", that is, a generation. (Examples: Eli, Saul, David, Solomon.)
  • According to the Midrash, Moses spent three consecutive periods of "forty days and forty nights" on Mount Sinai:
  1. He went up on the seventh day of Sivan, after God gave the Torah to the Jewish people, in order to learn the Torah from God, and came down on the seventeenth day of Tammuz, when he saw the Jews worshiping the Golden Calf and broke the tablets
  2. He went up on the eighteenth day of Tammuz to beg forgiveness for the people's sin and came down without God's atonement on the twenty-ninth day of Av
  3. He went up on the first day of Elul and came down on the tenth day of Tishrei, the first Yom Kippur, with God's atonement
  • Rabbi Akiva, the greatest expositor of the Oral Torah, only began learning how to read Hebrew when he was 40 years old
  • A mikvah consists of 40 se'ah (approximately 200 gallons) of water
  • 40 lashes is one of the punishments meted out by the Sanhedrin (in actual practice, only 39 lashes were administered)
  • "Forty days and forty nights" was the period Jesus spent fasting in the wilderness, after which he was tempted by Satan.
  • Forty days was the period from Jesus' resurrection till his ascension into heaven.
  • In modern Christian practice, Lent consists of the 40 days preceding Easter. In much of Western Christianity Sundays are excluded from the count; in Eastern Christianity Sundays are included.
  • The dead are usually mourned for forty days in Muslim cultures
  • Ad-Dajjal roams around the Earth in forty days, forty days that can be as many as forty months, forty years, and so on.
  • Khadijah is said to be forty years old when she married Muhammad
  • Muhammad is said to be forty years old when he first received the relevation delivered by an angel
  • In the Yazidi faith, The Chermera temple (meaning “40 Men” in the Yazidi dialect) is so old that no one remembers how it came to have that name but it is believed to derive from the burial of 40 men on the mountaintop site.
  • Some Russians believe that ghosts of the dead linger at the site of their death for forty days
  • In Eternalism, 40 is believed to be the number of the Corrupter, the Anti-Christ in Christianity, and is formed from the numbers 18+1+6+6+9. This also spells Raffi with correct numero-alphabetic translation.
  • In Hinduism, some popular religious prayers consist of forty shlokas or dohas (couplets, stanzas). The most common being the Hanuman Chalisa (chaalis is the Hindi term for 40) .

[edit] In other fields

Forty is also:

[edit] Historical years

40 A.D., 40 B.C., 1940, 2040, etc.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Dallal, Tamalyn (2007). 40 Days & 1001 Nights. Seattle: Melati Press, back cover. ISBN 978-0-9795155-0-7. 
  2. ^ 40 Days & 1001 Nights - One Woman's Dance Through Life in the Islamic World.
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