Crazy EIGHTS!

Happy 08/08/08! Not only should you be excited that the Olympics start today, but you are also about ready to read some possibly entertaining facts about the number 8! Thanks A LOT wikipedia.com! Let me know your favorites or if you think of something else that refers to the number 8.

• 8 is a composite number, its proper divisors being 1, 2, and 4. Eight is a power of two, being 2^3, or two cubed and is the first number of the form p^3.
• The number 8 is a Fibonacci number, being 3 plus 5. The next Fibonacci number is 13.
• A polygon with eight sides is an octagon.
• A figure 8 is the common name of a geometric shape, often used in the context of sports, such as skating.
• As of 2006, in our solar system, eight of the bodies orbiting the Sun are considered to be planets.
• The atomic number of oxygen.
• There are eight known B vitamins that play important roles in cell metabolism.
• All spiders, and more generally all arachnids, have eight legs. An octopus has eight tentacles. (Most of you know my love of spiders...)
• In the human adult dentition there are 8 teeth in each quadrant. The 8th tooth is the so called the wisdom tooth. (that's for you Bryce)
• Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe that humans are responsible for their actions by the age of 8. Before that age, children lack sufficient knowledge to commit sin and are therefore exempt from judgment for their actions.
• The number of Beatitudes. (And President Hinckley's "B's")
• In Astrology, Scorpio is the 8th astrological sign of the Zodiac .
• An octave, the interval between two notes with the same letter name (where one has double the frequency of the other), is so called because there are eight notes on a western scale between the two, including the notes themselves .
• "Eight maids a-milking" is the gift on the eighth day of Christmas in the carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas."
• The 8-track cartridge is a musical recording format .
• "Eight Days a Week" is a #1 single for the music group The Beatles.
• Eight ball billiards is played with 15 balls; the black ball numbered 8 being the middle and most important one. Magic 8 Ball is a randomized process of predicting the future or answering various questions, packaged to resemble this ball and often sold as a fortune-telling device.
• A byte is eight bits.
• A figure eight is a type of knot frequently used by climbers.
• In liquid measurement (US customary units), there are 8 fluid ounces in a cup, 8 pints in a gallon, and 8 tablespoons in a gill .
• There are 8 furlongs in a mile.
• There are eight vegetables in V8 juice.
• "Section 8" is common U.S. slang for "crazy", based on the U.S. military's Section 8 discharge for mentally unfit personnel. (Think Klinger on M*A*S*H*)
• Eight babies delivered in one birth are called octuplets. The first set of eight surviving babies, the Chukwu octuplets, were born in 1998.
• October was the eighth month in the Roman calendar; currently August is the eighth month .
• 8 is one of The Numbers - 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42 - featured in Lost.