9 ( nine) is the natural number following and preceding .
Evolution of the Hindu–Arabic digit
Circa 300 BC, as part of the
Brahmi numerals, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing
question mark without the bottom dot. The Kshatrapa, Andhra and Gupta started curving the bottom vertical line coming up with a -look-alike.
How the numbers got to their Gupta form is open to considerable debate. The Nagari continued the bottom stroke to make a circle and enclose the 3-look-alike, in much the same way that the sign @ encircles a lowercase
a. As time went on, the enclosing circle became bigger and its line continued beyond the circle downwards, as the 3-look-alike became smaller. Soon, all that was left of the 3-look-alike was a squiggle. The Arabs simply connected that squiggle to the downward stroke at the middle and subsequent European change was purely cosmetic.
While the shape of the glyph for the digit 9 has an ascender in most modern , in typefaces with text figures the character usually has a descender, as, for example, in .
The form of the number nine (9) could possibly derived from the Arabic letter waw, in which its isolated form (و) resembles the number 9.
The modern digit resembles an inverted 6. To disambiguate the two on objects and labels that can be inverted, they are often underlined. It is sometimes handwritten with two strokes and a straight stem, resembling a raised lower-case letter q, which distinguishes it from the 6. Similarly, in seven-segment display, the number 9 can be constructed either with a hook at the end of its stem or without one. Most LCD calculators use the former, but some VFD models use the latter.
Mathematics
9 is the fourth
composite number, and the first odd composite number. 9 is also a refactorable number.
Casting out nines is a quick way of testing the calculations of sums, differences, products, and of in decimal, a method known as long ago as the 12th century.[Cajori, Florian (1991, 5e) A History of Mathematics, AMS. . p.91]
9 is the only square number that is the sum of two consecutive, positive cubes:
If an odd perfect number exists, it will have at least nine distinct .
9 is the sum of the cubes of the first two non-zero positive integers which makes it the first cube-sum number greater than one.
with 9 in the center (by Yang Hui), where numbers on each circle and diameter around the center generate a magic constant of 138.]]There are nine , or square-free positive integers that yield an imaginary quadratic field whose ring of integers has a unique factorization, or class number of 1.[Bryan Bunch, The Kingdom of Infinite Number. New York: W. H. Freeman & Company (2000): 93]
9 is the largest single-digit number in the decimal.
The nine dots puzzle is a mathematical puzzle whose task is to connect nine squarely arranged points with a pen by four (or fewer) straight lines without lifting the pen or retracing any lines.
Geometry
A
polygon with nine sides is called a
nonagon.
[Robert Dixon, Mathographics. New York: Courier Dover Publications: 24] A regular nonagon can be constructed with a regular
compass,
straightedge, and
angle trisector.
The lowest number of needed for a perfect tiling of a rectangle is 9.
List of basic calculations
|
|
| 9 × x | 9 | 18 | 27 | 36 | 45 | 54 | 63 | 72 | 81 | 90 | 99 | 108 | 117 | 126 | 135 | 144 | 180 | 225 | 450 | 900 | 9000 |
|
|
| 9 ÷ x | 9 | 4.5 | 3 | 2.25 | 1.8 | 1.5 | 1. | 1.125 | 1 | 0.9 | 0. | 0.75 | 0. | 0.6 | 0.6 |
| x ÷ 9 | 0. | 0. | 0. | 0. | 0. | 0. | 0. | 0. | 1 | 1. | 1. | 1. | 1. | 1. | 1. |
|
|
| 9 | 9 | 81 | 729 | 6561 | 59049 | 531441 | 4782969 | 43046721 | 387420489 | 3486784401 |
| x | 1 | 512 | 19683 | 262144 | 1953125 | 10077696 | 40353607 | 134217728 | 387420489 | 1000000000 |
Culture and mythology
Indian culture
Nine is a number that appears often in Indian culture and
Indian mythology.
For example, there are nine
Navagraha attested to in
Indian astrology. In the
Vaisheshika branch of
Hindu philosophy, there are nine universal substances or elements:
Prithvi, Water,
Vayu,
Agni,
Akasha, Time, Space, Soul, and Mind.
is a nine-day festival dedicated to the
Navadurga forms of
Durga.
Chinese culture
-
Nine (九; p=jiǔ) is considered a good number in Chinese culture because it sounds the same as the word "long-lasting" (久; p=jiǔ).
-
Nine is strongly associated with the Chinese dragon, a symbol of magic and power. There are nine forms of the dragon, it is described in terms of nine attributes, and it has nine children. It has 117 scales – 81 yang (masculine, heavenly) and 36 yin (feminine, earthly). All three numbers are multiples of 9.
Anthropology
Idioms
-
"To go the whole nine yards"
-
"A cat has nine lives"
-
"To be on cloud nine"
-
"A stitch in time saves nine"
-
The word "K-9" pronounces the same as canine and is used in many US police departments to denote the police dog unit. Despite not sounding like the translation of the word canine in other languages, many police and military units around the world use the same designation.
-
Someone dressed "to the nines" is dressed up as much as they can be.
Religion and philosophy
-
Nine, as the largest single-digit number (in decimal), symbolizes completeness in the Baháʼí Faith. In addition, the word Baháʼ in the Abjad numerals has a value of 9, and a 9-pointed star is used to symbolize the religion.
-
The number 9 is revered in Hinduism and considered a complete, perfected and divine number because it represents the end of a cycle in the decimal system, which originated from the Indian subcontinent as early as 3000 BC.
-
In Norse mythology, the number nine is associated with Odin, as that is how many days he hung from the world tree Yggdrasil before attaining knowledge of the runes.
-
Nine is the number associated with Satan in LaVeyan Satanism. Anton LaVey wrote in The Satanic Rituals that this is because nine is the number of the ego since it "always returns to itself" even after being multiplied by any number.
Science
Chemistry
Nines are a notation for expressing the purity of a chemical.
In chemical nomenclature, the prefix "non-" stands for the number nine, for example in molecular chains with nine atoms such as "nonane" for an alkane with nine carbon atoms. The prefixes play a role in the naming of molecules, especially in organic chemistry to indicate the number of similar atoms or groups in the molecule (e.g. "nonan" for 9 carbon atoms, "nonavalent" for nine-valent. are peptides that consist of nine .
Physiology
A human
pregnancy normally lasts nine months, the basis of Naegele's rule.
Psychology
Common terminal digit in psychological pricing.
See also
-
9 (disambiguation)
-
0.999...
-
Further reading
-
Cecil Balmond, "Number 9, the search for the sigma code" 1998, Prestel 2008, ,
