24 (number)

In mathematics

24 is an even composite number, a highly composite number, an abundant number, a practical number, and a congruent number. The many ways 24 can be constructed inspired a children's mathematical game involving the use of any of the four standard operations on four numbers on a card to get 24.

24 is also part of the only nontrivial solution pair to the cannonball problem, along with 70. It is also the kissing number in 4-dimensional space. This fact can be used in the construction of the 24-dimensional Leech lattice. An icositetragon is a regular polygon with 24 sides. A tesseract has 24 two-dimensional square faces. The 24-cell, consisting of 24 octahedra and having 24 vertices, is a special polytope that only exists in four dimensions.

In religion

• In Christian apocalyptic literature it represents the complete Church, being the sum of the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 Apostles of the Lamb of God. For example, in The Book of Revelation: "Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads."
• Number of Tirthankaras in Jainism.
• Number of spokes in the Ashoka Chakra.

In culture

• In Brazil, twenty-four is associated with homosexuality as it is the number that stands for the deer in a game known as “jogo do bicho”.
• There are 24 hours in a day.

References

References

1. Weisstein, Eric W.. "Cannonball Problem".
2. "Revelation 4:4, New International Version (1984)". Bible.cc.