On 60

It’s been a long time since I dedicated a post to a number, so today is as good as day as any to celebrate Sixty Factoids about 60.

In Mathematics
1) 60 is a composite number, unitary perfect number, an excessive number, a Harshad number, a semiperfect number

2) Divisible by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 10, 12, 15, 20, 30, and 60

3) An icosidodecahedron has 60 edges

4) In geometry, 60 minutes in a degree

5) A number system with base 60 is called sexagesimal, which the Babylonians and the Mali Empire used

In Science
6) Neodymium has the atomic number 60, whose neutral state consists of 60 protons and 60 electrons (and they make interesting magnets)

7) Number in Earth years between Great Conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn

8) Appropriately for today, 60 Aquarii is the Flamsteed designation for a star in the equatorial constellation of Aquarius

9) The first fullerene (buckyball) discovered was buckminsterfullerene C-60 – an allotrope of carbon with 60 atoms in each molecule, arranged in a truncated icosahedron (appearing like a soccer ball)

In Religion
10) In the Bible, the number 60 is the age of Isaac when Jacob and Esau were born, and the number of warriors escorting King Solomon

11) In the laws of kashrut of Judaism, 60 is also the proportion (60:1) of kosher to non-kosher ingredients that can render an admixture kosher post-facto

12) In the Koran, Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, created Adam in His own image with His length of sixty cubits

In Entertainment
13) TV shows include 60 Minutes, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Sixty Minute Man, and 60 Minute Makeove

14) Movies include Gone in 60 Seconds (Nicolas Cage & Angelina Jolie), Attack of the 60 Foot Centerfold, and 60 Second Assassin

15) Songs include Sixty Seconds to Kingdom Come (U2), Sixty Years On (Elton John), Sixty Minutes Man (Billy Ward and the Dominoes), Zero to Sixty (Aaron Watson), and 60 – a set of etudes for the classical guitar (Matteo Carcassi )

16) Books include the Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers (Lilian Jackson Braun), Sixty Things to Do When You Turn Sixty, and Totally MAD: 60 Years of Humor, Satire, Stupidity, and Stupidity

17) Read Shakespeare’s Sonnet 60

In Sports
18) Although not the record, Babe Ruth 60 home runs in 1927 remains a standard

19) At League Park (Cleveland), a home run to right field (only 290 ft away) had to clear a 60 ft wall,

20) Baker Bowl (Philadelphia) had a 60-foot wide foul ground surrounding the field of play

21) The only professional sports jerseys retired is Chuck Bednarik (Eagles, NFL)

22) The Hamilton TIger-cats won the 60th Grey Cup on December 3, 1972 by defeating the Saskatchewan Roughriders13-10, which was also the last Grey Cup played in December

23) In 341 NASCAR races, car #60 has won once (Bill Rexford, driver)

24) In darts, 60 (treble-twenty) is the highest score which can be achieved with a single dart

In Standards
25) The infield in softball is smaller than in baseball; each base is 60 ft

26) Bowling alley is 60 ft from foul line to termination

27) 60 metres hurdles is a distance in an indoor hurdling race

28) In time, 60 seconds in a minute, and 60 minutes in an hour (a legacy of the Babylon?)

29) 60 hertz is the electrical utility frequency in western Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, the United States, and several other countries in the Americas

30) 60 feet in the standard measurement tool to evaluate an automotive launch on a dragstrip

31) The time required an automobile accelerates to from rest to 60 miles per hour is a standard measurements of performance

32) The 1 in 60 rule is a rule of thumb used in air navigation, and states that if a pilot has travelled sixty miles then an error in track of one mile is approximately a 1° error

In Geography
33) Alabama’s Natural Bridge formation is 60 ft high

34) The upper falls of Alabama’s DeSoto Falls drop 60 meters

35) 60th parallel South does not cross any land

36) 60 Parallel North crosses Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, United States, Canada, Greenland, and Scotland

37) 60 Meridian West crosses Greenland, Canada, Venezuela, Guyana, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, Falkland Islands, South Shetland Islands, and Antarctica,

38) 60th Meridian East crosses Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Iran, but no land in the southern hemisphere.

39) The Great Crack is an eight-mile-long, 60 feet (18 m) wide and 60 feet (18 m) deep fissure in the island, in the district of Kau (big island of Hawaii)

40) The 60th Street Tunnel carries the N Q R trains of the New York City Subway under the East River and Roosevelt Island between Manhattan and Queens

41) Highway/route 60 is found in 5 Canadian provinces, Chile, Europe (Euro route from France to Romania), Israel, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Korea, and the UK. In the US, there is a federal highway, 30 states, and 2 territories

In World History
42) The Battle of Hill 60 was the last major assault of the Battle of Gallipoli in the Middle Eastern theatre of WW I

43) Nippon Airways (ANA) Flight 60 was a Boeing 727-81 aircraft that crashed on February 4, 1966. All 133 passengers and crew died

44) In 60 BC (also known as Chinese calendar 2577/2637 to 2578/2638, Thai solar calendar year 484, Holocene calendar year 9941), Gaius Julius Caesar conquers all of Lusitania, the Han Dynasty government (China) establishes the Protectorate of the Western Regions, and Prince Ptolemy of Egypt, later Pharaoh Ptolemy XIV of Egypt is born

45) In 60 AD (also known as Assyrian year 4810, Berber year 1010, Buddhist year 604), Emperor Nero sends an expedition to explore the historical city Meroë (Sudan), Paul of Tarsus journeys to Rome, but is shipwrecked at Malta, and Hero of Alexandria writes Metrica, Mechanics, and Pneumatics.

In US History
46) Alexander Hamilton wrote Federalist Paper #60

47) Sixtieth United States Congress met in Washington, DC from March 4, 1907 to March 4, 1909, during the last two years of Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency

48) The Sixty Years’ War (1754–1814) was a military struggle for control of the Great Lakes region in North America, encompassing a number of wars over several generations

In Potpourri
49) Other ways to write sixty: LX, 1111002, Zestig, Soixante, Sessanta, Sześćdziesiąt, Altmış, Seksti

50) The National Assembly for Wales and the Grand and General Council (San Marino’s parliment) are each composed of 60 members

51) 60 is the retirement age for Men in Belarus, China, India, Pakistan, Russian, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam, …. for women in India, Pakistan, and Malta

52) 60 years of marriage is the diamond wedding anniversary

53) The maximum number of marbles (game pieces) in Chinese checkers

54) The code for international direct dial calls to Malaysia

55) Miss Sixty is a women’s apparel brand

56) The total number of cards in the game Rack-O

57) 60 kilometers per hour is a common speed limit in Russia’s urban areas

58) One giant squid specimen that washed ashore in 1878 in Newfoundland reportedly measured 60 ft (18m)

59) Baby boomers are members of the 60s generation

60) There are many more items associated with 60, but on this day, it’s only sixty.