Interesting facts about the number 23

[Bob Lake]

Like me I am sure that anyone who has served in the 23rd of Foot will like the number. I am not saying that its a lucky number, its just one I like, which keeps on cropping up in my life and grabs my attention. e.g. Five of my close relatives have birthdays on the 23rd, my sailing boat has the number 23 and so on. I thought it would be fun to collect interesting occurrences of the number 23 apart from our great regiment The Royal Welch Fusiliers (23rd of foot).

For example did you know:

The number 23 is a prime number.

Each parent contributes 23 chromosomes to the start of human life. The nuclei of cells in human bodies have 46 chromosomes made out of 23 pairs. Egg and sperm cells in humans have 23 chromosomes which fuse and divide to create an embryo.

The Knights Templar had 23 Grand Masters

David Beckham's number at Manchester United was 23.

Can anyone else add some more interesting facts about the number 23?

[Gwyn Nicholas]

Psalm 23 . The Lord is my Shepherd.

[Lofty-25]

My house number is 23, my twin sisters house number is 23, i have lived in 3 different houses with the numbers 2 and 3 in them, i have flown to Canada 4 times and 3 of them times i have had seat number 23 (a,b,c,d or e), i did not book them seats they were given to me

[martin Hargraves]

There were 23 problems on David Hilbert's famous lis of unsolved mathematical problems, presented to the International Congress of Mathematicians in Paris in 1900.
Michael Jordon also wore the 23 shirt.
The Number 23 is also a film written by Fernley Phillips, Directed by Joel Schumacher and stariing Jim Carrey.

[rikoshea]

I was once 23. the last time i played golf I scored 23. and in the next 23 years ill be 61.
CAR giant Nissan is touched by a numerical coincidence. In Japanese, "ni" is 2, and "san" is 3. So Nissan would be 23. I Drive a Nissan

[nasher546]

Nobel Prize winning economist, John Forbes Nash, the inspiration for the film, 'A beautiful Mind', was obsessed with the number 23. It featured prominently in his nervous breakdown. He claimed that Pope John Paul XXIII was in fact himself, the evidence being that 23 was his favorite number. Coincidentally Nash also published only 23 scientific articles.:yes:

[Bricoates]

My Army No. starts with 23, 2399, I wish that I was 23 again
Brian

[steve bird]

40 years ago i was 23 before i joined the regt i lived in a house number 23 when i left the army i lived in a house number 23 and my main start time for work is 23.00 hrs
:spinny:

[John Turner]

There's a wiki for the number 23 - just google "Twenty three" (I did try and post the link but it didn't work, hence the deleted post above)

I was 23 when my father died - the news was broken to me on top of a 432 in Soltau.

[steve carey]

My Birthday is the 23rd (spooky), Till I joined the Army I always had my birthday on the 24th, Then when I joined up I had to get a copy of my birth certificate and found out I was born on the 23rd.......:nah:

[chow]

I lived at number 23 before joining up...
now live at number 5....2+3.

[rikoshea]

Late author William Burroughs was so gripped by numeric coincidences surrounding 23, he kept a scrapbook of his findings. It is said he was alerted to the number's power when a Captain Clark told him he had run a ferry from Spain to Morocco with no problem for 23 years. Hours later it sank, killing the skipper.

Band Psychic TV were obsessed with 23. They released 23 live albums, each on the 23rd day of 23 months running.

BASKETBALL legend Michael Jordan wore 23 for the Chicago Bulls. His dad was also murdered on July 23, 1993, during a botched robbery. Real's choice of number is a coup for agency SFX who handle both Jordan and Becks' affairs.

WILLIAM Shakespeare was born and died on April 23. His first folio of plays came in 1623. Wife Anne died in 1623.

US catchphrase "23, skidoo" is thought to have come from A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens. In it a woman counts guillotine victims.

As she says "23" the hero Sydney Carton is beheaded in the last act.

WORLD record-breaking basketball boy wonder LeBron James also wears the number 23 shirt.

The 18-year-old recently signed for Cleveland Cavaliers after agreeing a four-year, £12million contract. And the much-hyped star, dubbed the "Chosen One" signed a £60million endorsement deal with sportswear giants Nike.

CAR giant Nissan is touched by a numerical coincidence. In Japanese, "ni" is 2, and "san" is 3. So Nissan would be 23.

WRITER Burroughs inspired author Robert Anton Wilson. It was from one of his books that the 23-letter name, Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu, was taken for the band which later became KLF.

A US police car used in the video for the group's hit Doctorin' The Tardis had 23 painted on the roof, and their final performance lasted 23 minutes. They incinerated £1million on a Scottish island on August 23, 1994.

WILLIAM Burroughs' final TV appearance was in U2's Last Night on Earth video. The letter U is the 21st in the alphabet and adding the 2 gives 23.

Sesame Street's Bert is a member of the national association of W lovers, the 23rd letter of the alphabet.

WHEN 23 or more people are in the same room there is a better than evens chance that at least two share the same birthday. Class sizes in schools are larger than 23, so more than half in Britain have two pupils with the same birthdays.

THE Latin alphabet has 23 letters. The German movie 23 explored an obsession with the number, based on a real-life story.

On average, every 23rd wave crashing to shore is twice as large as normal.

In the disaster movie Airport, the bomber has seat 23.

IN THE Beatles film Yellow Submarine, The Butterfly Stomper, who destroys all things of beauty, wears a shirt with the number 23.

WEIRD pop band Psychic TV are so obsessed with 23 that at one point they made the Guinness Book of World Records by releasing 23 albums on the 23rd day of 23 months in a row. They were influenced by the occultist Aleister Crowley who had been convinced of the power of 23.

ON July 23, 1996 the "Mysterious Eyes" of comet Hale-Bopp are first sighted.

THE earth rotates on an axis of 23 and a half degrees. Alright, that's not strictly 23, but it's near enough to be considered a numerical coincidence.

ROCK star Kurt Cobain was born in 1967 and died in 1994. Both years bizarrely add up to 23 if counted as individual digits: 1+9+6+7=23. 1+9+9+4=23.

ROMAN Emperor Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times when he was assassinated.

THE average smoker gets through 23 cigarettes a day.

IN Oliver Stone's Nixon, Tricky Dickie's football shirt at Whittier is number 23.

TWENTY-THREE was the shirt number worn by tragic footballer Marc-Vivien Foe when he was at Manchester City. The Cameroon international died after collapsing on the pitch during a Confederations Cup semi-final last week.

IN Hollywood blockbuster Die Hard III the train derails in subway station 23.

The first song on Side A of the Beatles first album took 23 takes to record.

US Cavalry legend General Custer was promoted to the senior military rank at the age of 23. The soldier was the youngest general in the US army at the time.

IN the final assault on the Death Star in Star Wars, Luke Skywalker is in Red 5. Red 2 and Red 3 start bomb runs at 23 degrees. The cell block holding Princess Leia, right, was AA-23.

[nasher546]

In the Monty Python movie 'The Life of Brian', there were 23 crosses at Calvary.

[steve carey]

Anybody like me done the lotto with different combos of 23.

[richie264]

The greatest Regt The British Army ever had was The 23rd Of Foot.

[dutchman]

it took me 23 minutes to read riks post

[steve carey]

my lotto combos of 23 were ****, Lucky my a...e...........................:no:

[rikoshea]

SWANSEA City are the 23rd different winner of the League Cup now thats brilliant.

[Bob Lake]

Some more from an internet list
1. 23 is the most commonly cited prime number and the only prime number that consists of two consecutive prime numbers.

2. Two divided by three makes 0.666 recurring

3. The Hiroshima bomb was dropped at 8.15am - 8+15= 23.

4. Charles Darwin's Origin of Species was published in 1859 - 1+8+5+9 = 23.

5. The Sept. 11th attacks: 9+11+2+0+0+1 add up to 23.

6. Each parent contributes 23 chromosomes to the start of human life. The nuclei of cells in human bodies have 46 chromosomes made out of 23 pairs. Egg and sperm cells in humans have 23 chromosomes which fuse and divide to create an embryo.

7. Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times.

8. Kurt Cobain was born in 1967 and died in 1994 - 1+9+6+7= 23, 1+9+9+4 = 23.

9. The Knights Templar had 23 Grand Masters

10. The first morse code transmission - "What hath God wrought?" - was from the Bible passage Numbers 23:23. In telegraphers code 23 means "break the line"

11. "W" is the 23rd letter of the alphabet. It has two points down and three points up. Half of W is V, which is the roman numeral for 5.

12. The "W" on your keyboard is right between the 2 and 3.

13. E is the fifth letter of the alphabet, and also the most commonly used in the English language. Half of W is V, which is the roman numeral for 5.

14. The average human physical biorhythm is 23 days.

15. The Titanic sank on 4/15/1912; 4+1+5+1+9+1+2=23.

16. The tilt of Earth’s axis is roughly 23 degrees.

17. The pattern of DNA shows irregular connections at every 23rd section

18. Humans have 23 vertebra running down the main part of their spines

19. Blood circulates the body on average every 23 seconds

20. The average circumference of a human head in inches is 23

21. The Harmonic Convergence occurs every 23,000 years.

22. Geosynchronous orbit occurs at 23,000 miles above Earth’s surface

23. 23 Annunaki aided in the seeding of life on this planet.

24. April 19th as in 4-19... 4 + 19 = 23. April 19 is the date the Battle of Lexington, Waco, and the Oklahoma City Bombing.

25. Asteroid researchers measuring the rotation periods of asteroids reported that none were found with periods of less than 2.3 hours. A rotation period of less than 2.3 hours would cause them to be torn apart.

26. B.C.E the politically correct term meaning "Before Common Era", or more to the point, before the supposed birth of Christ B, C, E: the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th letters of the alphabet

27. The most frequent numbers in the Book of Revelations are 4 (the powerful beasts), 7(seven seals, seven churches, etc.), and 12 (12 apostles, etc.). 4+7+12=23

28. I Corinthians 15:56, Paul said "The sting of death [23] is sin and the strength of sin [13] is the law [10]."

29. The address of the Freemasons lodge in Stafford, England is 23 Jaol Rd. In New York it is on 23rd street.

30. There are 2,300 stones comprising the Great Pyramid

31. There are exactly 23 characters, numbers and letters on the face of all U.S. coins

32. On December 23, 1805 the Federal Reserve Act passed in congress.

33. William Shakespeare was born and died on the 23rd of April

[steve carey]

Mrs smith down the rd lives in No 23, Her mate mary lives in No5 3+2 sorry could not resist.