55 Frivolous (and not so) Facts About the Number 5

Dear Kid,

It’s the 5^th. So I thought it would be a good idea to share 5 cool things about the number 5.

But I can’t. Because there are too many funky facts about five to limit it.

Here are 55 frivolous (and not so) facts about the number 5.

1. The pattern of five dots on a die is called a quincunx. Excellent Scrabble word. Will send everyone running for the dictionary.
2. There are five rings in the Olympic symbol (stay tuned for PyeongChang 2018).
3. Five is a prime number.
4. It’s also a Fibonacci number.
5. You have 5 senses (so do I).
6. “Take five” means to take a five minute rest. It’s amazing how often the break lasts longer than that.
7. There are 5 players on the court for each side in a game of basketball (unless you’re playing one on one).
8. A devout follower of Islam worships five times a day facing the holy city of Mecca.
9. The Islamic creed is the ‘Five Pillars of the Faith’.
10. Punch traditionally has five ingredients (some lovely form of liquor, water, sugar, lemon juice, and an even lovelier choice of spice).
11. The lovely liquor is often contained in fifths.
12. The name punch comes from the Hindi word for five. Who knew?
13. Boron is the 5th element in the period table.
14. There is a movie called the Fifth Element. I haven’t seen it, but I’m pretty sure it’s not about boron.
15. Five babies are born every second.
16. 5 is a Catalan Number (look it up if you’re interested).
17. There are five vowels in the English alphabet (yes, “y” gets short changed every time).
18. A nickel is worth 5 cents (I didn’t say they were all new and interesting facts).
19. A fiver is a five pound note in Britain.
20. We have five fingers on each hand.
21. And five toes on each foot.
22. “V” is five in Roman numerals. (Do they still teach Roman numerals in school?)
23. The pentathlon has five events.
24. Pentagram, pentangle and pentacle are all names for a five-pointed star.
25. A pentagon has 5 sides. Also five angles. Also lots of high ranking military people.
26. Confucius said: “To practice five things under all circumstances constitutes perfect Virtue; these five are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness, and kindness.” 
27. A pentasyllabic word has five syllables. The word pentasyllabic is pentasyllabic.
28. Most bolts are hexagonal, but the ones on most fire hydrants are pentagonal because you need a special wrench to open them.
29. Five was Coco Chanel’s lucky number. In 1921, she introduced Chanel No. 5 on the fifth day of the fifth month.
30. There are five books in the Torah.
31. The book of Psalms is arranged into 5 books.
32. The New Testament contains 5 foundational books.
33. In Greek Orthodox Christian mysticism, the number 5 symbolizes the Holy Spirit.
34. The Five Platonic Solids are the only five convex regular solids it is possible to construct. (They are the tetrahedron (four sides), the cube (six sides), the octahedron (eight sides), the dodecahedron (12 sides) and the icosahedron (20 sides).)
35. Flowers on the wild rose has five petals.
36. Apples, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, pears, cherries, plums, and peaches all have flowers that have five petals. They are related to the wild rose (wouldn’t it be perfect if they were 5^th cousins?).
37. Donovan McNabb wore number 5 with the Eagles.
38. Carles Puyol, Fabio Cannavaro, Franz Beckenbauer are freakin’ amazing soccer players who all wore number 5.
39. There are a boatload of Hall of Fame baseball players who wore number 5. Extra points if you can name any of them.
40. Danielle Scott-Arruda played volleyball for the US in 5 Olympics.
41. Michael Phelps also competed in 5 Olympics. He’s better known than Danielle.
42. On average, 5 people died each year in shark attacks. They aren’t faster than Phelps. Who isn’t faster than the shark.
43. Tetrominoes are shapes made by combining four squares. There are only 5 possible.
44. If you combine five squares to make a shape, you must call it a pentomino. Because “George” would be inappropriate.
45. The 5 Elements: Fire, Air, Water, Earth, and Spirit.
46. The constellation Cassiopeia has five stars. And five syllables.
47. Libra also has five stars. And five letters.
48. The world’s largest hula hoop was 5 meters across. Not your everyday hula hoop.
49. Beethoven’s 5^th symphony was one of his more famous pieces. It also led to a film (which was direct to video, so not many people noticed).
50. Five is the smallest number of queens needed to attack every square on a standard chess board. Who gets five queens? Ridiculous.
51. Five Points was a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan (NYC). The Five Points Gang was the criminal gang from – wait for it – Five Points.
52. There are 5 calories in half a peanut. (Depending on the size of the peanut.)
53. Wood is the traditional gift for a 5^th
54. Silverware is the modern gift for a 5^th Someone needs to get more creative on gifting.
55. It took me 5 times as long to write this as it should have. (The research I do for you….)

Love, Mom

Baseball Hall of Famers who wore number five: Luke Appling, George Brett, Lou Boudreau, Hank Greenberg, Johnny Bench, Joe DiMaggio, and Brooks Robinson.