Twelve

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under 12 (disambiguation) , there is also the year 12 .

Twelve
12
presentation
Roman	XII
dual	1100
Octal	14th
Duodecimal	10
Hexadecimal	C.
Morse code	- - - - - - - -
Chinese	十二
Mathematical properties
sign	positive
parity	straight
Factorization	${\displaystyle 2^{2}\cdot 3}$
Divider	1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 12

The twelve hours of the day on a clock

The twelve (12) is the natural number between eleven and thirteen . She is straight .

Linguistic

Similar to the word eleven , the numeral for twelve was created in German. The old high German education zwelif with the meaning "two remains (left)", ie "two over ten". The Germanic root * lif (cf. English to leave - ( to leave )) is related to today's word to remain , which developed from the old high German bilîban . Twelve is the number that leaves two after counting to ten with your fingers.

According to the old German spelling, twelve was the last number that was written out. In the inflected form (twelve, twelve) the f [f] becomes the voiced fricative [v] in the north German-speaking area .

The word dozen for the number twelve comes from the Middle High German tozen , which was borrowed from the Middle Latin form dozena for the Latin word duodecim (twelve). This Latin word occurs in many foreign words, such as duodezime or duodez .

The Greek numeral δώδεκα (twelve) can also be found in numerous foreign words, for example in dodecaphony , dodecasilane or dodecane .

mathematics

Dodecahedron ( Greek twelve-sided)

The number twelve is a number with many factors : 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 12. No number less than twelve has so many factors. Only eighteen has as many factors (1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 18) and only 24 has more factors (1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 24). This is probably why the twelve is often used as the basis for systems of numbers and measurements.

Twelve is a sublime number because 6, the number of divisors, and 28, the sum of their divisors, are perfect numbers . At the same time, twelve is also an abundant number , which means that the sum of its real divisors is greater than itself, it is the smallest abundant number. In addition, you can put 12 balls (of the same size) around another ball of the same size, so that all of them touch but do not overlap; So 12 is the three-dimensional kiss number . In addition, twelve is a Størmer number .

A twelve-sided polygon is a dodecagon . The pentagon dodecahedron has twelve faces of equilateral pentagons and the dual icosahedron has twelve corners accordingly. Both belong to the Platonic solids . Other twelve-sided elements are the rhombic dodecahedron , the trigonal dodecahedron and the triacistrahedron . The hexahedron (cube) and the dual octahedron , which both also belong to the Platonic solids, each have 12 edges.

Natural sciences

Twelve Apostles in the evening light

• Twelve Apostles is the name of a rock formation in the Altmühltal in Bavaria.
  • Another group of rocks called the Twelve Apostles can be found in the sea in Port Campbell National Park off the coast of the Australian state of Victoria.
  • and a Twelve Apostles stone circle in West Yorkshire in northern England.
• The archipelago of the Southern Sporades is traditionally called the Dodecanese (from the Greek Δωδεκάνησα "twelve islands").
• The duodenum of a human being is about as long as twelve times the width of his fingers.
• The sidereal year of the planet Jupiter lasts about 12 years.

History and society

Zodiac man

• The twelve play a prominent role in the society of the early high cultures of Mesopotamia to this day. To date, the day is divided into two twelve hours . The origin of the twelve signs of the zodiac is also in Mesopotamia . The Chinese calendar is also based on the number twelve, it also knows twelve zodiac signs and the twelve branches of the earth .
• For Israel the twelve was also an important number in the past because of the twelve tribes of Israel .
• In Etruria one was Etruscan cities , and the ionic federal initially consisted of twelve city-states
• The duodecimal system based on the number twelve seems to be very old in Europe. It is the basis of an old counting measure: 12 pieces are called a dozen, 12 dozen a gros , and finally twelve gros are called measure . Five dozen are called shock.
• The division of numerous historical measures and weights , still used today in the Anglo-American system of measurement , as well as the division of time measurement are based - probably originating in Mesopotamia - on the twelve.
• An indispensable tool used by previous builders was a rope that was divided into 12 parts. If you create a triangle with sides 3, 4 and 5, this results in a right angle between the two shorter sides (see the Pythagorean theorem ).
• The Twelve Articles are among the demands made by the peasants in Memmingen in the German Peasants' War in 1525 against the Swabian Federation.
• In England and the USA, a jury of 12 jurors decides whether the accused is guilty or innocent in criminal trials . The German title The Twelve Jurors for Sidney Lumet's film 12 Angry Men from 1957 became famous .
• The 12-person committee decides at the Federal Testing Office for Media Harmful to Youngsters on the indexing of media with content harmful to young people.

European flag with 12 stars

• The flag of the European Union shows twelve golden stars on a blue background as a symbol of perfection, completeness and unity. The number of stars cannot be changed and has a purely abstract meaning. Originally, the flag was only intended for the Council of Europe in 1955 . In 1986 the Council agreed on the European flag, which became the emblem of the European Union.
• The 12th man - a common name for football fans who drive the players to victory. Some football clubs do not give the number 12 to players as a thank you to their fans.

Culture, literature, music and intellectual life

• In Western music, the 12th part of an octave, the semitone , is traditionally the smallest interval used . As a result, there are twelve tones in European classical music and thus twelve major and twelve minor keys. Starting with Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, there is a tradition of building cycles on the basis of 12, especially for piano compositions. Examples are the two twelve-part Etude Cycles by Frédéric Chopin or the Études and Préludes by Claude Debussy .
• Arnold Schönberg developed (among others) the composition technique of twelve-tone music , which no longer relates the twelve tones of the scale to one fundamental tone, but only to one another and is based on the arrangement of all of these twelve tones of the scale.
• 12 is the name of a music album by Herbert Grönemeyer . The album is the twelfth studio album of his career and has 12 tracks.
• Twelve is the name of the debut work by New York writer Nick McDonell from 2002, which has been translated into more than 10 languages. It is about young people from the American upper class. Twelve is a trendy drug that contains cocaine and has a similar effect.
• 12 points are also the highest number of points out of ten blocks of points to be awarded that a country can award when awarding points at the Eurovision Song Contest . In total, each participating country awards 58 points to 10 other participating countries. This voting system has been used since the Eurovision Song Contest in 1975 .

Mythology and religion

mythology

Leonardo da Vinci : The Last Supper

• In Greek mythology , the number twelve is present in the twelve-member college of the titans and the twelve main Olympic gods . Twelve trials were imposed on the hero Heracles .
• The Nordic and Germanic mythology know a twelve-headed gods College: In Asgard , the home of the Æsir are twelve palaces for the twelve gods.
• According to modern interpretations, Arthur’s round table has twelve seats. In fact, in the saga, the number of participating knights was initially unlimited, although numbers on the basis of 12 such as 24 or 240 are also mentioned in the literature.
• The twelve has its meaning in the Chinese number symbolism .

Old testament

• The Dodecapropheton , also called the Book of the Twelve Prophets, is a book of the Old Testament of the Bible, to which the shorter writings of the so-called "twelve minor prophets" are summarized.
• According to the sons of Jacob, the people of Israel are divided into twelve tribes in the Old Testament .
• Twelve precious stones are on the breastplate of the high priest .

New Testament

• According to the New Testament, Jesus gathered around him twelve disciples whom he appointed as apostles . The twelve disciples are also symbolically associated with the twelve tribes of Israel . In the letter to the Galatians Paul called the apostles “pillars” ( Gal 2.9  EU ); Church buildings are therefore sometimes symbolically built with twelve columns. In the Apocalypse ( Rev 21:14  EU ) there is another reference to this number, where it is described that the walls of the New Jerusalem are built on twelve foundation stones with the twelve names of the apostles.
• The heavenly city of Jerusalem (Rev. John 21) has 12 gates on which 12 angels stand. The city's dimensions are all based on the number twelve.

Christianity

• The Christianity interprets the twelve (three by four, in addition to the seven , three plus four) as saints number of meeting God ( Three : Trinity = Trinity ) with the world ( four : four directions, four seasons, four elements).

The heavenly Jerusalem, from: Beatus facundus, 1047

• The Christian Christmas festival lasts 12 days or nights, for more details see under Rauhnacht .
• The Orthodox Church knows twelve main festivals, the so-called Dodekaórton .

Mormon

• Modeled after the disciples of Jesus, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles is part of the hierarchy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints .

Islam

• The Twelve Shiites , the largest group of Shiites in Islam, recognize twelve imams as the successors of the Prophet Mohammed . The twelfth, Muhammad al-Mahdī , the so-called hidden imam, is to return to the world as savior . Therefore, according to the constitution, he is the nominal head of state of Iran .

Fairy tales and folk tales

• A fairy tale widespread in Europe can be found in the collection of the Brothers Grimm as The Twelve Brothers . Other titles from Grimm's fairy tale collection are The Twelve Lazy Knechte and The Twelve Hunters . Furthermore, Sleeping Beauty's parents only have 12 golden plates and can therefore only invite 12 fairies to his baptism .
• In Twelve with the Post , Hans Christian Andersen describes how the twelve months of the beginning of the year move into the city on New Year's Eve.

See also

• List of special numbers
• Top 12

Web links

Wiktionary: Twelve  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Wiktionary: twelve  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Commons : Twelve  - Collection of images, videos, and audio files

Wikiquote: Twelve  Quotes

• 12 (twelve)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Friedrich Kluge, Alfred Götze: Etymological Dictionary of the German Language , 20th edition 1967, p. 898
2. ↑ Writing numbers ( Memento from June 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
3. ^ German dictionary by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm: twelve , num.