88 (number)

← 87 88 89 →
← 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 → List of numbers Integers ← 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 →
Cardinal	eighty-eight
Ordinal	88th (eighty-eighth)
Factorization	23 × 11
Divisors	1, 2, 4, 8, 11, 22, 44, 88
Greek numeral	ΠΗ´
Roman numeral	LXXXVIII
Binary	10110002
Ternary	100213
Senary	2246
Octal	1308
Duodecimal	7412
Hexadecimal	5816

88 (eighty-eight) is the natural number following 87 and preceding 89.

In mathematics

Eighty-Eight is a refactorable number, a primitive semiperfect number and an untouchable number. It is also an hexadecagonal number.

Since it is possible to find sequences of 88 consecutive integers such that each inner member shares a factor with either the first or the last member, 88 is an Erdős–Woods number.

In base 10, it is a palindromic number and a repdigit.

In astronomy and space exploration

• The number of constellations in the sky as defined by the International Astronomical Union
• Messier object M88, a magnitude 11.0 spiral galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices
• The New General Catalogue object NGC 88, a spiral galaxy in the constellation Phoenix, and a member of Robert's Quartet
• Space Shuttle Mission 88 (STS-88), launched and completed in December, 1998, began the construction of the International Space Station.
• The Saros number of the solar eclipse series which began on -246 October 6 and ended on 1233 March. The duration of Saros series 88 was 1478.4 years, and it contained 83 solar eclipses. Further, the Saros number of the lunar eclipse series which began on 38 July and ended on 1336 August. The duration of Saros series 88 was 1298.1 years, and it contained 73 lunar eclipses.
• Approximately the number of days it takes Mercury to complete its orbit.

Cultural significance

In Chinese culture

Further information: numbers in Chinese culture

Number 88 symbolizes fortune and good luck in Chinese culture, since the word 8 sounds similar to the word Fā (发, which implies 发财, or wealth, in Mandarin or Cantonese). The number 8 is considered to be the luckiest number in Chinese culture, and prices in Chinese supermarkets often contain many 8s. The shape of the Chinese character for 8 (八) implies that a person will have a great, wide future as the character starts narrow and gets wider toward the bottom. The Chinese government has been auctioning auto license plates containing many 8s for tens of thousands of dollars. The 2008 Beijing Olympics opened on 8/8/08 at 8 p.m. 88 is often used to mean "bye bye" in Chinese-language chats, text messages, SMSs and IMs. 88 is pronounced in Chinese Mandarin language as "ba ba" ("bā bā" to be precise), simulating the sound of the English language "bye bye".

In Amateur Radio

88 is used as shorthand for 'Love and kisses' when signing a message in Amateur (ham) Radio. It is used in spoken word (radiotelephony) morse code (radiotelegraphy) and in various digital modes. It is considered rather more intimate than '73', which (roughly) means 'best regards', and therefore 73 is more often used. The two may be used together. Sometimes the 88 or 73 is pluralized by appending an s. These number codes originate with the 92 Code adopted by Western Union in 1859.

In white nationalism

Modern Nazis use the number 88 as an abbreviation for the salute Heil Hitler. The letter H is eighth in the English alphabet, whereby 88 becomes HH. Often, this number is associated with the number 14, e.g. 14/88, 14-88, or 1488; this number symbolizes the Fourteen Words coined by David Lane, a prominent white nationalist. Example uses of 88 include the song "88 Rock 'n' Roll Band" by Landser, and the organizations Barselc88, Column 88, Unit 88, and White Legion 88. Gunman and author James von Brunn signed his works as "JVB-88." Currently, the Michigan-based ANP uses 14 in its domain name and 88 as part of a radio sign-off.

In sports

• Professional golfer Kathy Whitworth, throughout her playing career won 88 LPGA Tour tournaments, more than anyone else has won on either the LPGA Tour or the PGA Tour.
• 88 is the number of a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series car owned by Hendrick Motorsports. It is currently a Chevrolet driven by Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Through the 2011 season, it was sponsored by AMP Energy and the National Guard; PepsiCo will replace its AMP Energy sponsorship with Diet Mountain Dew for 2012. From 1995 to 2007, the car was owned by Robert Yates Racing; its best-known driver during that time was Dale Jarrett, who won a Cup Series championship and two Daytona 500s in the car.

In other fields

Eighty-eight (88) is also:

• in mm, a standard length of playing cards
• a popular ice cream bar manufactured by GB Glace
• the atomic number of radium
• the ASCII code for an upper-case X
• the number of keys on a piano (36 black and 52 white), a piano is sometimes called an "eighty eight"
• 88 Keys, character in Dick Tracy (1990 film)
• The digits indicated when all the segments of two seven-segment displays are illuminated
• Eighty Eight, a live album by the Christian rock band The 77s
• in the titles of songs:
  • "Rocket 88," a song first recorded at Sam Phillips' studio in 1951; Rocket 88 was a 1980s United Kingdom band named for the song
  • "88 Lines About 44 Women" by the band The Nails
  • "88" by the Canadian punk band Sum 41 on their 2004 album, Chuck
  • "88" by the English Nu-Metal band Apartment 26 on their second album, Music for the Massive
  • "88", a song by Level 42 on the album Strategy
  • "88" by hip hop act The Cool Kids
  • "88" by the Japanese electro-pop duo LM.C, or Lovely Mocochang.com

Olds 88

• the model number of the Oldsmobile 88 automobile and the AGM-88 HARM missile
• the QBU-88 (or Type 88) Chinese sniper rifle
• the number of the French department Vosges
• the designation of two freeways named Interstate 88, one in Illinois and another in New York
• in Japanese, often used to mean "a great many" or "countless" or infinite numbers.
• in Chinese SMS or chat, short for "byebye", from the Mandarin pronunciation "ba1 ba1" (8 - 8)
• in hip hop, where "88" stands for "HH," short for "hip hop"
• in Kill Bill, the name of O-Ren Ishii's Army, the Crazy 88
• the ISBN Group Identifier for books published in Italy and Switzerland
• in the Back to the Future film trilogy, 88 is the speed (in miles per hour) that the DeLorean automobile must attain in order to travel in time.
• in the TV series Black Books (Series 2, Episode 2: "Fever"), the temperature (presumably in Fahrenheit) above which Manny's case of Dave's Syndrome will trigger, supposedly a parody of the similar use of the number 88 in the Back to the Future trilogy
• "the number of the Anti-Terrorist" in the documents submitted to NBC by Seung-Hui Cho prior to the Virginia Tech massacre on 16 April 2007
• the number of an anti-terrorist police squad, called "Detachment 88", set up by the Indonesian government following the 2002 Bali bombings which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians
• Tanner '88, Garry Trudeau's HBO series on the fictional campaign of Congressman Jack Tanner in his bid for the White House
• 88 Minutes, a 2008 film starring Al Pacino
• The Cambridge Z88 was a 1988 portable computer
• 88open was an industry standards group in '88 created by Motorola to standardize Unix systems
• An '88-level' is a named condition in the COBOL programming language
• The House on East 88th Street, a book by Bernard Waber
• 88-Keys, an American record producer and rapper
• The dead man's hand in poker is a pair of aces and a pair of 8's.
• 88 is the name of a gang in the 2006 American film Gridiron Gang starring Dwayne Johnson
• In the United States Navy, 88 is slang for the word "what". For example, "88 are you doing tonight?"
• Two genera of butterflies (Diaethria and Callicore) are called Eighty-eights because markings on their wings look like the number 88.
• The German 8.8 cm FlaK 18/36/37/41 anti-aircraft gun used in WWII was often referred to colloquially as an "88" (acht-acht in German)

See also

• 7744 (number) (the square of 88)