- published: 03 Sep 2009
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16 (sixteen) is the natural number following 15 and preceding 17. 16 is a composite number, and a square number, being 42 = 4 × 4. It is the smallest number with exactly five divisors, its proper divisors being 1, 2, 4 and 8.
In speech, the numbers 16 and 60 are often confused. When carefully enunciated, they differ in which syllable is stressed: 16 /sɪksˈtiːn/ vs 60 /ˈsɪksti/. However, in dates such as 1666 or when contrasting numbers in the teens, such as 15, 16, 17, the stress shifts to the first syllable: 16 /ˈsɪkstiːn/.
Sixteen is the fourth power of two. For this reason, 16 was used in weighing light objects in several cultures. The British have 16 ounces in one pound; the Chinese used to have 16 liangs in one jin. In old days, weighing was done with a beam balance to make equal splits. It would be easier to split a heap of grains into sixteen equal parts through successive divisions than to split into ten parts. Chinese Taoists did finger computation on the trigrams and hexagrams by counting the finger tips and joints of the fingers with the tip of the thumb. Each hand can count up to 16 in such manner. The Chinese abacus uses two upper beads to represent the 5s and 5 lower beads to represent the 1s, the 7 beads can represent from a hexadecimal digit from 0 to 15 in each column.
Knowing
Is what people tell you
That you're thinking wrong
Embrace you,
But they really mean 'So long'
You talk to them
They laugh aloud
Yet they run to you
In any crowd
Please talk to me again
I need you
We're dancing
We will come and dance near you
We want to learn
Let us come and sitar with you
Distort my ears when
The music's loud
Yet you raise your hatchet
In the yellow crowd
Please talk to me again
I need you
Knowing
Is what people tell you
That you're thinking wrong
Embrace you,
But they really mean 'So long'
You talk to them
They laugh aloud
Yet they run to you
In any crowd
Please talk to me again
I need you