Six (original) (raw)

Six (6) is the natural number following five and preceding seven.

Six is the second smallest composite number, its proper divisors being 1, 2 and 3. Since six equals the sum of these proper divisors, six is a perfect number. The next perfect number is 28. Six is also a highly composite number. The next highly composite number is twelve.

The smallest non-abelian group is the symmetric group _S_3 which has 3 = 6 elements.

In binary code six is 110; in ternary code six is 20; in quaternary numeral system code six is 12; in quinary six is 11; in senary six is 10; in septenary code and all codes above (such as octal, decimal and hexadecimal) six is 6. In Roman numerals six is VI.

Hexa is Greek for "six". As such:

• A hexagon is a six-sided polygon.
• A hexahedron is a polyhedron with six faces, with a cube being a special case.
• A hexapod is an animal with six legs; this includes all insects.
• Hexameter is a poetic form consisting of six feet per line.

The prefix "hexa-" also occurs in the systematic name of many chemical compounds, such as "hexamethyl".

A group of six musicians is called a sextet. Six babies delivered in one birth are sextuplets. The first set of sextuplets of whom all six survived are the Dilley Sexuplets. People with sexdactyly have six fingers on each hand. A sextant got its name because its shape forms one sixth of a whole circle.

Other things that come in six:

• Number Six was the main character in the television series The Prisoner.
• "Six Geese a Laying" were the present on the sixth day of Christmas in the Christmas carol.
• Les Six were a group of Lost Generation writers.
• One of A. A. Milne's poetry books was entitled Now We Are Six
• A 'six' is a shot in cricket such that the ball clears the boundary without bouncing.
• A 'six' is the name of the smallest group of Cub Scouts, traditionally consisting of six people and is led by a 'sixer'. Logically speaking, this isn't always the case, particularly in packs with less than 6 Cub Scouts in it.
• There are six points on a Star of David.
• Six cans come in a six-pack.
• There are six colors in the rainbow if indigo is not counted as a color.
• There are six inhabited continents, and six continents in all if Eurasia is labeled as a single continent.
• Senatorss run for reëlection every six years in the United States.
• Extra-sensory perception is sometimes called the "sixth sense".
• Bands with the number six in their name include Eve 6 and Sixpence None the Richer.
• The Six dynasties form part of Chinese history.
• The Bionic Six are the heroes of an animated series.
• The Birmingham Six were held in prison for 16 years.
• A standard guitar has six strings.
• Six feet under the surface of the ground is the standard depth for a coffin. Thus, the phrase "six feet under" means that a person (or an abstraction) is dead.
• Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon is a game that can be played with the names of actors and actresses.
• RIASEC is a system that places occupations into six categories.
• 666 is considered the Number of the Beast.
• Six similar coins can be arranged around a central seventh of the same kind so that each makes contact with the central one and touches both its neighbours without a gap.

See also: four, five, six, seven, eight, integer, list of numbers.

This article is about the number. For the year AD 6, see 6.