MARY BRASWELL: Looking Back at the number 5

Each week Albany Herald researcher Mary Braswell looks for interesting events, places and people from the past. You can contact her at (229) 888-9371 or [email protected].

On this fifth Sunday of the month, here is a look at things associated with the number 5.

Technically speaking…

— “Pente” means five in the Greek language.

— “Quinque” is from the Latin for 5.

— Five is a congruent number.

— A polygon with five sides is a pentagon

— Five is the only prime number to end in the digit 5.

— The atomic number of boron is 5.

— A category 5 is the the most destructive hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

— An F-5 is the most destructive tornado on the Fujita scale.

— Human perception is conceived through the 5 senses.

— Almost all mammals, amphibians and reptiles which have fingers or toes have five of them on each extremity.

— Five musicians is called a quintet.

— It takes five U.S. Supreme Court justices to render a majority decision.

— All north-south interstate highways in the U.S. end in 5.

— The Committee of Five was delegated to draft the United States Declaration of Independence. They were John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston, Roger Sherman and Thomas Jefferson.

— In radio communication, the term five by five is used to indicate perfect signal strength and clarity.

— The Olympic Games have five interlocked rings as their symbol, representing the number of inhabited continents participating in the games. North and South America, by the way, are considered as one.

— Modern musical notation uses a staff made of 5 horizontal lines.

— The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is often referred to in court as “pleading the fifth,” absolving an individual from self-incrimination.

— Pentagram, pentangle and pentacle are all names for a five-pointed star.

In the Bible …

—Moses is believed to be the author of the Pentateuch (first five books of the Bible). The word comes from the Greek pente (5) and teuchos (volumes). There are about two dozen verses in the Hebrew Scriptures and one dozen in the Christian Scriptures which state or strongly imply this authorship.

— The apostle John wrote five books of the New Testament centered on the grace of God and eternal life. They are John, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John and Revelation.

— The fifth of the Ten Commandments is “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land your God is giving you.” (Exodus 20:12, NIV)

— Five was an important number in God’s instructions for the building of the tabernacle found also in the book of Exodus. The design included five curtains, five bars, five pillars and five sockets. There was an altar made of wood that was five cubits long and five cubits wide. The height of the court within the tabernacle was also five cubits.

— The Bible has five books with only one chapter. They are 2 John, 3 John, Philemon, Jude and Obadiah.

There’s more…

—The fifth president of the United States was James Monroe.

— Dave Clark, Lenny Davidson, Rick Huxley, Denis Payton and Mike Smith made up the British pop rock group known as the Dave Clark Five. The band was active from 1958 through 1975.

— Near the end of the film “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” the character of King Arthur repeatedly confused the number 5 with the number 3.

— On almost all devices with a numeric keyboard, the 5 key has a raised dot or raised bar, helpful for visually impaired users.

— Muslims pray to Allah five times a day.

— “Take five” means simply to take a break or short rest … it may or may not actually be five minutes.

— A five-o’clock shadow is the slight growth of a beard visible by late afternoon on a man who shaved that morning.

— In the U.S. Army, the highest possible rank is that of a five-star general.

— Now obsolete, Americans once shopped for inexpensive items at the “five-and-ten-cent-store.”

— The most common number of gears in automobiles with manual transmission is 5.

— In hockey, the space between the goaltender’s legs is known as the five-hole.

— A pentagonal bolt is fitted to most fire hydrants making it almost impossible to be turned with a normal wrench. Most bolts and therefore wrenches are hexagonal (six-sided)

— In 1921, Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel believed the number 5 to be quite lucky. She chose the fifth day of the fifth month to introduce her new perfume. Chanel No. 5 is still on the market today.

— The five-second rule is a commonly-used rule of thumb for eating dropped food.

— Punch is a drink that traditionally, or at least originally, has 5 ingredients including spirits, water, sugar, lemon juice and spice. The word itself comes from the Hindi word for five.

“Hawaii Five-O” (1968 – 1980)

—“Hawaii Five-O” starred Jack Lord (Captain Steve McGarrett), James McArthur (Danny Williams), Kam Fong (Chin Ho) and Herman Wedemeyer (Duke).

— Five-O was a special police unit which answered only to the governor and was headed by McGarrett. The name came from the fact that Hawaii was the 50th state to join the union.

— Jack Lord was living in California when he was asked to read for the part of McGarrett. He read for the role on Wednesday, flew to Hawaii on Friday and was in front of the cameras on Monday.

— Kam Fong was a Honolulu police officer from 1946-1962.

— Danny was the only member of Five-O ever seen smoking cigarettes. Chin smoked a pipe occasionally.

— “Hawaii Five-O” was the longest running cop show on television until “Law & Order” hit its 13th season.

— Hawaii, by the way, is the only state that has never had a state police agency.

— Famous last words: “Book ‘em, Danno.”

QUIK QUIZ answer:

d) Connecticut