21 (twenty-one) is the natural number following 20 and preceding 22.

← 20 21 22 →
Cardinaltwenty-one
Ordinal21st
(twenty-first)
Factorization3 × 7
Divisors1, 3, 7, 21
Greek numeralΚΑ´
Roman numeralXXI
Binary101012
Ternary2103
Senary336
Octal258
Duodecimal1912
Hexadecimal1516

The current century is the 21st century AD, under the Gregorian calendar.

In mathematicsEdit

21 is:

  • a composite number, its proper divisors being 1, 3 and 7, and a deficient number as the sum of these divisors is less than the number itself.
  • a Fibonacci number as it is the sum of the preceding terms in the sequence, 8 and 13.[1]
  • the fifth Motzkin number.[2]
  • a triangular number,[3] because it is the sum of the first six natural numbers (1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 = 21).
  • an octagonal number.[4]
  • a Padovan number, preceded by the terms 9, 12, 16 (it is the sum of the first two of these) in the padovan sequence.[5]
  • a Blum integer, since it is a semiprime with both its prime factors being Gaussian primes.[6]
  • the sum of the divisors of the first 5 positive integers (i.e., 1 + (1 + 2) + (1 + 3) + (1 + 2 + 4) + (1 + 5))
  • the smallest non-trivial example of a Fibonacci number whose digits are Fibonacci numbers and whose digit sum is also a Fibonacci number.
  • a Harshad number.[7]
  • a repdigit in quarternary (1114).
  • the smallest natural number that is not close to a power of 2, 2n, where the range of closeness is ±n.
  • the smallest number of differently sized squares needed to square the square.[8]
  • the largest n with this property: for any positive integers a,b such that a + b = n, at least one of   and   is a terminating decimal. See a brief proof below.

Note that a necessary condition for n is that for any a coprime to n, a and n - a must satisfy the condition above, therefore at least one of a and n - a must only have factor 2 and 5.

Let   denote the quantity of the numbers smaller than n that only have factor 2 and 5 and that are coprime to n, we instantly have  .

We can easily see that for sufficiently large n,  , but  ,   as n goes to infinity, thus   fails to hold for sufficiently large n.

In fact, For every n > 2, we have

 

and

 

so   fails to hold when n > 273 (actually, when n > 33).

Just check a few numbers to see that '= 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 15, 21.

In scienceEdit

Age 21Edit

  • In thirteen countries, 21 is the age of majority. See also: Coming of age.
  • In eight countries, 21 is the minimum age to purchase tobacco products.
  • In seventeen countries, 21 is the drinking age.
  • In nine countries, it is the voting age.
  • In the United States:
    • 21 is the minimum age at which a person may gamble or enter casinos in most states (since alcohol is usually provided).
    • 21 is the minimum age to purchase a handgun or handgun ammunition under federal law.
    • 21 is the age at which one can purchase multiple tickets to an R-rated film.
    • In some states, 21 is the minimum age to accompany a learner driver, provided that the person supervising the learner has held a full driver license for a specified amount of time. See also: List of minimum driving ages.

In sportsEdit

  • Twenty-one is a variation of street basketball, in which each player, of which there can be any number, plays for himself only (i.e. not part of a team); the name comes from the requisite number of baskets.
  • In three-on-three basketball games held under FIBA rules, branded as 3x3, the game ends by rule once either team has reached 21 points.
  • In badminton, and table tennis (before 2001), 21 points are required to win a game.
  • In AFL Women's, the top-level league of women's Australian rules football, each team is allowed a squad of 21 players (16 on the field and five interchanges).
  • In NASCAR, 21 has been used by Wood Brothers Racing and Ford for decades. The team has won 99 NASCAR Cup Series races, a majority with 21, and 5 Daytona 500’s. Their current driver is Harrison Burton.

In other fieldsEdit

 
Building called "21" in Zlín, Czech Republic
 
Detail of the building entrance

21 is:

ReferencesEdit

  1. ^ "Sloane's A000045 : Fibonacci numbers". The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences. OEIS Foundation. Retrieved 2016-05-31.
  2. ^ "Sloane's A001006 : Motzkin numbers". The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences. OEIS Foundation. Retrieved 2016-05-31.
  3. ^ "Sloane's A000217 : Triangular numbers". The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences. OEIS Foundation. Retrieved 2016-05-31.
  4. ^ "Sloane's A000567 : Octagonal numbers". The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences. OEIS Foundation. Retrieved 2016-05-31.
  5. ^ "Sloane's A000931 : Padovan sequence". The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences. OEIS Foundation. Retrieved 2016-05-31.
  6. ^ "Sloane's A016105 : Blum integers". The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences. OEIS Foundation. Retrieved 2016-05-31.
  7. ^ "Sloane's A005349 : Niven (or Harshad) numbers". The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences. OEIS Foundation. Retrieved 2016-05-31.
  8. ^ C. J. Bouwkamp, and A. J. W. Duijvestijn, "Catalogue of Simple Perfect Squared Squares of Orders 21 Through 25." Eindhoven University of Technology, Nov. 1992.