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20 (number)

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by MVMosin (talk | contribs) at 04:19, 10 April 2007 (→‎In other fields: Identifying the meaning of "rolling twenties" is actually the very reason I looked this article up.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

20 (twenty) is the natural number following 19 and preceding 21. A group of twenty units is often referred to as a score.

Template:Numbers 20s
Cardinal 20
twenty
Ordinal 20th
twentieth
Numeral system vigesimal
Factorization
Divisors 1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 20
Roman numeral XX
Roman numeral (Unicode) XX, xx
Binary 10100
Octal 24
Duodecimal 18
Hexadecimal 14
Vigesimal 10

In mathematics

Twenty is a composite number, its proper divisors being 1, 2, 4, 5 and 10. Skipping 2 and adding the other divisors gives 20, hence 20 is a semiperfect number, and since it is not divisible by any of the smaller semiperfect numbers, it is a primitive semiperfect number. 20 is the smallest abundant number that is not a multiple of 3.

It is also the sum of the first four triangular numbers, making it a tetrahedral number.

20 is the total number of digits on the human body, which makes it a possible candidate for a numeral system.

Twenty is used as a radix for vigesimal number systems. In the former British currency system, there were twenty shillings in a pound.

A polyhedron with twenty faces is an icosahedron.

Twenty is the first number in an early Indian magic square of order 3.

In base 10, it is a Harshad number and the smallest even self number.

In science

Astronomy

Biology

  • The number of proteinogenic amino acids that are encoded by the standard genetic code.
  • The number 20 is used as an index in measuring visual acuity. 20/20 indicates normal vision at 20 feet, although it is commonly used to mean "perfect vision" (Note that this applies only to countries using the Imperial system. The metric equivalent is 6/6). When someone is able to see only after an event how things turned out, that person is often said to have had "20/20 hindsight".

In sports

In other fields

File:Tv sesame street 20 chairs.jpg
20 chairs on Sesame Street.
  • The number of twenty can also be called a score.
  • In a game of chess both players have 20 first moves from which to choose
  • Twenty questions is a popular party game
  • Twenty is the age of majority in Japanese tradition. Someone who is exactly twenty years old is described as hatachi
  • The "Twenty Year Curse" refers to the pattern of presidents of the United States who assumed office in 1840, 1860, 1880, 1900, 1920, 1940, and 1960 to die in office. This pattern ended with the 1980 presidency of Reagan, who survived his time in office and, notably, an attempted assassination.
  • Bands with the number twenty in their name include Matchbox Twenty and 20goto10.
  • A 20-minute-long entertainment program shown before some films playing in United Artists movie theaters is called "The Twenty" (spelled "The 20wenty")
  • Yan Tan Tethera is a 20-word jingle for counting sheep
  • The ordinal adjective is vicenary
  • 20/20 is a late-night newsmagazine program on the ABC network, that has been hosted by Barbara Walters, Hugh Downs, Elizabeth Vargas, and others
  • In the roleplaying game Dungeons and Dragons, twenty-sided dice play a pivotal role in gameplay, and to "roll a twenty" is significant to the point that it is sometimes used in other, usually related, contexts, similar to the use of "doubles" in reference to Monopoly.

20 is:

Historical years

20 A.D., 20 B.C., 1920, 2020, etc.