12 (number)

← 11 13 → 12
← 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 → List of numbers — Integers 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 →
Cardinal	twelve
Ordinal	12th (twelfth)
Numeral system	duodecimal
Factorization	$2^2 \cdot 3$
Divisors	1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 12
Roman numeral	XII
Latin Prefix	duodeca-
Binary	1100₂
Octal	14₈
Duodecimal	10₁₂
Hexadecimal	C₁₆

Mathematical properties
φ(12) = 4	τ(12) = 6
σ(12) = 28	π(12) = 5
μ(12) = 0	M(12) = -2

12 (twelve ⁱ/ˈtwɛlv/) is the natural number following 11 and preceding 13.

The word "twelve" is the largest number with a single-morpheme name in English. Etymology suggests that "twelve" (similar to "eleven") arises from the Germanic compound twalif "two-leftover", so a literal translation would yield "two remaining [after having ten taken]".^[1] This compound meaning may have been transparent to speakers of Old English, but the modern form "twelve" is quite opaque. Only the remaining tw- hints that twelve and two are related.

A group of twelve things is called a duodecad. The ordinal adjective is duodenary, twelfth. The adjective referring to a group consisting of twelve things is duodecuple.

The number twelve is often used as a sales unit in trade, and is often referred to as a dozen. Twelve dozen are known as a gross. (Note that there are thirteen items in a baker's dozen.)

As shown below, the number twelve is frequently cited in the Abrahamic religions and is also central to Western calendar and units of time.

In mathematics

Twelve is a composite number, the smallest number with exactly six divisors, its proper divisors being 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 12. Twelve is also a highly composite number, the next one being 24. It is the first composite number of the form p²q; a square-prime, and also the first member of the (p²) family in this form. 12 has an aliquot sum of 16 (133% in abundance). Accordingly, 12 is the first abundant number (in fact a superabundant number) and demonstrates an 8 member aliquot sequence; {12,16,15,9,4,3,1,0} 12 is the 3rd composite number in the 3-aliquot tree. The only number which has 12 as its aliquot sum is the square 121. Only 2 other square primes are abundant (18 and 20).

Twelve is a sublime number, a number that has a perfect number of divisors, and the sum of its divisors is also a perfect number. Since there is a subset of 12's proper divisors that add up to 12 (all of them but with 4 excluded), 12 is a semiperfect number.

If an odd perfect number is of the form 12k + 1, it has at least twelve distinct prime factors.

Twelve is a superfactorial, being the product of the first three factorials. Twelve being the product of three and four, the first four positive integers show up in the equation 12 = 3 × 4, which can be continued with the equation 56 = 7 × 8.

Twelve is the ninth Perrin number, preceded in the sequence by 5, 7, 10, and also appears in the Padovan sequence, preceded by the terms 5, 7, 9 (it is the sum of the first two of these). It is the fourth Pell number, preceded in the sequence by 2 and 5 (it is the sum of the former plus twice the latter).

A twelve-sided polygon is a dodecagon. A twelve-faced polyhedron is a dodecahedron. Regular cubes and octahedrons both have 12 edges, while regular icosahedrons have 12 vertices. Twelve is a pentagonal number. The densest three-dimensional lattice sphere packing has each sphere touching 12 others, and this is almost certainly true for any arrangement of spheres (the Kepler conjecture). Twelve is also the kissing number in three dimensions.

Twelve is the smallest weight for which a cusp form exists. This cusp form is the discriminant Δ(q) whose Fourier coefficients are given by the Ramanujan τ-function and which is (up to a constant multiplier) the 24th power of the Dedekind eta function. This fact is related to a constellation of interesting appearances of the number twelve in mathematics ranging from the value of the Riemann zeta function function at -1 i.e. ζ(-1)=-1/12, the fact that the abelianization of SL(2,Z) has twelve elements, and even the properties of lattice polygons.

There are twelve Jacobian elliptic functions and twelve cubic distance-transitive graphs.

The duodecimal system (12₁₀ [twelve] = 10₁₂), which is the use of 12 as a division factor for many ancient and medieval weights and measures, including hours, probably originates from Mesopotamia.

In base thirteen and higher bases (such as hexadecimal), twelve is represented as C. In base 10, the number 12 is a Harshad number.

List of basic calculations

Multiplication	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10		11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20		21	22	23	24	25		50	100	1000
$12 \times x$	12	24	36	48	60	72	84	96	108	120		132	144	156	168	180	192	204	216	228	240		252	264	276	288	300		600	1200	12000

Exponentiation	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10		11	12	13
$12 ^ x\,$	12	144	1728	20736	248832	2985984	35831808	429981696	5159780352	61917364224		743008370688	8916100448256	106993205379072
$x ^ {12}\,$	1	4096	531441	16777216	244140625	2176782336	13841287201	68719476736	282429536481	1000000000000		3138428376721	8916100448256	23298085122481

In numeral systems

١٢	Arabic	ԺԲ	Armenian
ιβʹ	Ionian Greek	ΔΙΙ	Attic Greek
יב	Hebrew		Egyptian
१२	Indian (Devanāgarī)	十二	Chinese and Japanese
௧௨	Tamil	Ⅻ	Roman and Etruscan
๑๒	Thai	IIX	Chuvash
൧൨	Malayalam

In science

The atomic number of magnesium in the periodic table.
The human body has twelve cranial nerves.
The duodenum (from Latin duodecim, "twelve") is the first part of the small intestine, that is about twelve inches long. More precisely, this section of the intestine was measured not in inches but in fingerwidths. In fact, in German the name of the duodenum is Zwölffingerdarm and in Dutch the name is twaalfvingerige darm, both meaning "twelve-finger bowel."
Force 12 on the Beaufort wind force scale corresponds to the maximum wind speed of a hurricane.

Astronomy

Messier object M12, a magnitude 8.0 globular cluster in the constellation Ophiuchus
The New General Catalogue object NGC 12, a magnitude 13.1 spiral galaxy in the constellation Pisces
The Saros number of the solar eclipse series which began on 2680 BC BC August and ended on 1129 BC BC February. The duration of Saros series 12 was 1550.5 years, and it contained 87 solar eclipses.
The Saros number of the lunar eclipse series which began on 2360 BC BC May and ended on 1062 BC BC July. The duration of Saros series 12 was 1298.1 years, and it contained 73 lunar eclipses.
The 12th moon of Jupiter is Lysithea.

In religion

There are twelve ' Jyotirlingas' (epitome of God Shiva) in Hindu Shaivism. The shaivites (orthodox devotees of God Shiva) treat them with great respect and these are visited by almost every pious Hindu at least once in a lifetime. The number 12 is very important in many religions, mainly Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and also found in some older religions and belief systems.

In Antiquity there are numerous magical/religious uses of twelves.^[2] Ancient Greek religion, the Twelve Olympians were the principal gods of the pantheon. The chief Norse god, Odin, had 12 sons. Several sets of twelve cities are identified in history as a dodecapolis, the most familiar being the Etruscan League. In the King Arthur Legend, Arthur is said to have subdued 12 rebel princes and to have won 12 great battles against Saxon invaders. [source: Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia, 3d ed]

The importance of 12 in Judaism and Christianity can be found in the Bible. The biblical Jacob had 12 sons, who were the progenitors of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, while the New Testament describes twelve apostles of Jesus; when Judas Iscariot was disgraced, a meeting was held (Acts) to add Matthias to complete the number twelve once more. (Today, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.)

The Book of Revelation contains much numerical symbolism, and a lot of the numbers mentioned have 12 as a divisor. 12:1 mentions a woman — interpreted as the people of Israel, the Church or the Virgin Mary — wearing a crown of twelve stars (representing each of the twelve tribes of Israel). Furthermore, there are 12,000 people sealed from each of the twelve tribes of Israel, making a total of 144,000 (which is the square of 12 multiplied by a thousand).

In Orthodox Judaism, 12 signifies the age a girl matures (bat mitzvah)

There are 12 days of Christmas. The song Twelve Days of Christmas came from the traditional practice of extending Yuletide celebrations over the twelve days from Christmas day to the eve of Epiphany; the period of thirteen days including Epiphany is sometimes known as Christmastide. Thus Twelfth Night is another name for the twelfth day of Christmas or January 5 (the eve of Epiphany). Similarly, Eastern Orthodoxy observes 12 Great Feasts.

In Shi'a Islam, there are twelve Imams, legitimate successors of the prophet Muhammad. These twelve early leaders of Islam are—Ali, Hasan, Husayn, and nine of Husayn's descendants.

Imāmah (Arabic: إمامة‎) is the Shī‘ah doctrine of religious, spiritual and political leadership of the Ummah. The Shī‘ah believe that the A'immah ("Imams") are the true Caliphs or rightful successors of Muḥammad, and Twelver and Ismā‘īlī Shī‘ah further that Imams are possessed of supernatural knowledge, authority, and infallibility (‘Iṣmah) as well as being part of the Ahl al-Bayt, the family of Muhammad.[1] Both beliefs distinguish the Shī‘ah from Sunnis.

In Hinduism, the sun god Surya has 12 names. Also, there are 12 Petals in Anahata(Heart Chakra.)

In time

Most calendar systems have twelve months in a year.
The Western zodiac has twelve signs, as does the Chinese zodiac.
The Chinese use a 12 year cycle for time-reckoning called Earthly Branches.
There are twenty-four hours in a day in all, with twelve hours for a half a day. The hours are numbered from one to twelve for both the ante meridiem (a.m.) half of the day and the post meridiem (p.m.) half of the day. 12:00 after a.m. and before p.m. (in the middle of the day) is midday or noon, and 12:00 after p.m. and before a.m. (in the middle of the night) is midnight. A new day is considered to start with the stroke of midnight. The basic units of time (60 seconds, 60 minutes, 24 hours) can all perfectly divide by twelve.

In sports

In the rugby codes:

In rugby union:
- One of the starting centres, most often but not always the inside centre, wears the 12 shirt.
- The competition that was founded in 2001 as the Celtic League changed its name in 2011 to Pro12, reflecting its status as a 12-team league after it expanded in 2010 to include teams from Italy.
In rugby league, one of the starting second-row forwards wears the number 12 jersey in most competitions. An exception is in the European Super League, which uses static squad numbering.

In both soccer and American Football, the number 12 can be a symbolic reference to the fans because of the support they give to the 11 players on the field. Texas A&M University reserves the number 12 jersey for a walk-on player who represents the original "12th Man", a fan who was asked to play when the team's reserves were low in a college American football game in 1922. Similarly, Bayern Munich, Hammarby, Feyenoord, Atlético Mineiro, Flamengo, Seattle Seahawks, Portsmouth and Cork City do not allow field players to wear the number 12 on their jersey because it is reserved for their supporters.

The jersey number 12 has been retired by several North American sports teams in honor of past playing greats (or, in one case, a team's fans):

In Major League Baseball:
- The Tampa Bay Rays, for Hall of Famer Wade Boggs.
- The Toronto Blue Jays, for Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar.
In the NFL:
- The Buffalo Bills, for Hall of Famer Jim Kelly.
- The Miami Dolphins, for Hall of Famer Bob Griese.
- The New York Jets, for Hall of Famer Joe Namath.
- The San Francisco 49ers, for John Brodie.
- The Seattle Seahawks, for their fans (the "12th Man").
- The Dallas Cowboys have a policy of not retiring numbers. However, the team has not issued #12 since the retirement of Hall of Famer Roger Staubach.
- The Pittsburgh Steelers currently have a policy of not retiring numbers, having retired only one number (70) in their earlier history. However, the Steelers have not issued #12 since the retirement of Hall of Famer Terry Bradshaw.
In the NBA:
- The Cincinnati Royals, for Hall of Famer Maurice Stokes, who suffered a career-ending head injury in 1958, the team's first season in Cincinnati. The franchise continues to honor the number in its current incarnation as the Sacramento Kings.
- The New York Knicks, for Dick Barnett.
- The Utah Jazz, for Hall of Famer John Stockton.
In the NHL:
- The Detroit Red Wings, for Hall of Famer Sid Abel.
- The Montreal Canadiens, for Hall of Famers Yvan Cournoyer and Dickie Moore.
- The Vancouver Canucks, for Stan Smyl.
The jersey number 12 has also been retired by the men's basketball program of the University of North Carolina for Phil Ford.

In Canadian football, 12 is the maximum number of players that can be on the field of play for each team at any time.

In ten-pin bowling, 12 is the number of strikes needed for a perfect game.

In curling, the House or the circular scoring area, is 12 feet in diameter.

In cricket, another sport with eleven players per team, teams may select a "12th man", who may replace an injured player for the purpose of fielding (but not batting, bowling or keeping wicket).

In association football, 12 was also the number of teams in the finals of the FIFA Women's World Cup in its first two editions in 1991 and 1995.

In technology

ASCII and Unicode code point for form feed.
The number of function keys on most PC keyboards (F1 through F12)
The number of keys in any standard digital telephone (1 through 9, 0, * and #)
Microsoft's Rich Text Format specification assigns numbers congruent to 12 mod 256 to variants of the French language.

In the arts

Film

Movies with the number twelve or its variations in their titles include

Television

The number twelve plays a significant role in the television franchise Battlestar Galactica. The characters come from the Twelve Colonies of Kobol and worship the twelve lords of Kobol. In the re-imagined series, there are also twelve models of the humanoid version of Cylons.
Twelve Angry Men, the original 1954 live performance on the anthology television series Studio One
"Number 12 Looks Just Like You" is an episode of the television show "The Twilight Zone".
Schoolhouse Rock! portrayed an alien child using base-twelve arithmetic in the short "Little Twelvetoes".
12 Oz Mouse was an animated television show on Adult Swim.

Theatre

Twelfth Night is a comedy by William Shakespeare
Twelve Angry Men, by Reginald Rose, adapted from his own teleplay (see above)

Literature

The Twelve is a poem by Aleksandr Blok
Twelve is a novel by Nick McDonell
The Twelve Chairs is a satirical novel by the Soviet authors Ilf and Petrov
Cheaper by the Dozen is a 1946 novel by Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey
The Aeneid, an epic poem by Virgil is divided into two halves composed of twelve books.
Paradise Lost, an epic poem by John Milton is divided into twelve books perhaps in imitation of the Aeneid

Music

Twelve Girls Band
Twelve is the number of pitch classes in an octave, not counting the duplicated (octave) pitch. Also, the total number of major keys, (not counting enharmonic equivalents) and the total number of minor keys (also not counting equivalents). This applies only to twelve tone equal temperament, the most common tuning used today in western influenced music.
The twelfth is the interval of an octave and a fifth. Instruments such as the clarinet which behave as a stopped cylindrical pipe overblow at the twelfth.
The twelve-tone technique (also dodecaphony) is a method of musical composition devised by Arnold Schoenberg. Music using the technique is called twelve-tone music.
The 12" single is a vinyl record format.
Twelfth Night is a progressive rock band
12 Play is an R. Kelly album.
The Number 12 Looks Like You is a mathcore band.
"12", a Song from Brave Murder Day by Katatonia.
12 is a studio album by German singer Herbert Grönemeyer.
Twelve Deadly Cyns...and Then Some is an album by Cyndi Lauper.
D12 a rap group also known as the Dirty Dozen.
Musical group named 12 Stones
12 Hundred is a song by band Mushroomhead of their Savior Sorrow album.
12 is the 12th studio album by Keller Williams.
"12" ("Dodeka" in Greek) is one of the most well-known hits by Anna Vissi
12 is the number of studio albums the band The Beatles released.
The 1812 overture
"Twelve drummers drumming" is the gift on the twelfth day of Christmas in the carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas"

Art Theory

There are twelve basic hues in the color wheel; 3 primary colors (red, yellow, blue), 3 secondary colors (orange, green & purple) and 6 tertiary colors (names for these vary, but are intermediates between the primaries and secondaries).

Games

Twelve is a character in the Street Fighter video game

The Roman form of 12 (XII) is used as the symbol of the organization MJ12 in the Deus Ex computer game.

In other fields

There are 12 ounces in a troy pound (used for precious metals)
There are 12 constellations in the ecliptic (or signs of the zodiac).
In the former British currency system, there were twelve pence in a shilling.
In Greek mythology, the number of labours of Heracles was increased from ten to make twelve.
In English, twelve is the number of greatest magnitude that has just one syllable.
There are normally twelve pairs of ribs in the human body.
The Twelve Tables or Lex Duodecim Tabularum, more informally simply Duodecim Tabulae was the ancient legislation underlying Roman law.
In the United States, twelve people are appointed to sit on a jury for felony trials in all but four states, and in federal and Washington, D.C. courts. The number of jurors gave the title to the play (and subsequent films) Twelve Angry Men.
Twelve people have walked on Earth's moon.
The United States of America is divided into twelve Federal Reserve Districts (Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Richmond, Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Dallas, and San Francisco); American paper currency has serial numbers beginning with one of twelve different letters, A through L, representing the Federal Reserve Bank from which the currency originated.
According to UFO conspiracy theory, Majestic 12 is a secret committee, allegedly set up by U.S. President Harry S. Truman to investigate the Roswell UFO incident and cover up future extraterrestrial contact.
12 is the number of the French department Aveyron.
King Arthur's round table had 12 knights plus King Arthur himself.
12 inches in a foot.
12 face cards in a card deck.
Alcoholics Anonymous has 12 steps, 12 traditions and 12 concepts for world service

Historical years

12 B.C, 12 A.D., 1812, 1912, 2012, etc.

Notes

^ http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=twelve
^ The classic assembly of instances is Th. Weinreich, "Zwölfgötten' in W.H. Roscher, Ausfurliches Lexikon der Griechischen und Römishen Mythologie vol. vi. col. 764-848, noted in Robert Drews, "Light from Anatolia on the Roman Fasces"The American Journal of Philology 93.1 (January 1972) pp. 40-51) p 43 note 10. The twelve lictors carried fasces of twelve rods.

References

Schwartzman, Steven (1994). The words of mathematics: An etymological dictionary of mathematical terms used in English. The Mathematical Association of America. ISBN 0-88385-511-9.
Lattice Polygons and the Number 12, Bjorn Poonen, Fernando Rodriguez-Villegas, American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 107, No. 3 (Mar., 2000) , pp. 238–250 [1]