5 May: The number 5:

On the fifth day of the fifth month, 10 things you didn't know about the number 5:

1. The Greek prefix for five is penta. Hence a polygon with five sides is a pentagon; five-fold symmetry, as seen in starfish or an Apple core cut transversely is called pentamerism. The Latin prefix is quint, which is why a group of five musicians is a quintet and five babies born at one time are quintuplets. The most famous set of quintuplets were the Dionne Quintuplets born in the 1930s. Other words from this root is Quintessence, meaning "fifth element" and quincunx, which is the word for the arrangement of five dots on a standard Dice.
2. According to the ancient Greeks, the universe is made up of five classical elements: water, earth, air, fire, and ether. In East Asian tradition, there are also five elements: Water, Fire, earth, wood, and metal.
3. 5 is the atomic number of boron.
4. There are generally considered to be five senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste. The five basic tastes are sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami.
5. Five has significance in many world religions: the Hindu god Shiva has five faces; the Five Wounds of Jesus Christ in Christianity; the five books of the Torah in Judaism; The Five Pillars of Islam, and the fact that Muslims pray to Allah five times a day; The pentagram, or five-pointed star in Wicca.
6. Modern musical notation uses a musical staff made of five horizontal lines, and a perfect fifth is the most consonant harmony. There are several bands with five in their name, which may be something to do with this, or simply because there are five members: Five, a UK Boy band; Maroon 5, American pop rock band; The Jackson 5; Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five; Fifth Harmony, an American girl group; The Dave Clark Five; The 5th Dimension and Pentatonix, American a cappella group, to name but a few.
7. Most humans have five digits on each hand or foot. This gives rise to the expression "high five" meaning a hand gesture when two people simultaneously raise one hand each, about head-high, and push, slide, or slap the flat of their palm against the flat palm of the other person. The gesture is often preceded verbally by a phrase like "Give me five", or "High five". It is often used as a celebration, or sometimes a greeting.
8. Chanel No. 5 was the first perfume launched by French couturier Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel in 1921.
9. On a numeric keypad, such as on a phone, computer or coded entry system, the number five is the number which is usually in the middle. For that reason the five key almost always has a raised dot or bar, to aid blind people, because all the other numbers can be found by their relative positions to the number five.
10. In numerology, five represents curiosity, adventure, change and motion. People with five in their numerology chart like to travel, meet new people and will try anything once. They will be attracted by new ideas.

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