- This article is about the number seven. For other uses, see 7.
7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8.
The SI prefix for 10007 is zetta (Z), and for its reciprocal zepto (z).
In mathematics
- Remove the last digit,
- Double it, and
- Subtract it from the remaining digits.
- If the result is negative and there are 2 or more digits, drop the negative sign.
- Repeat until you end up with a result that is a multiple of seven (7). (i.e. -7, 0, or +7)
For example, the number 1358 is evenly divisible by seven, since:
- 135 - (8*2) = 119
- 11 - (9*2) = -7
Using Number Theory the proof is rather easy, once we rewrite the number n in the form:
- n = 10a + b
Where:
- a is the remaining digits, and
- b is the last digit.
Then:
- 10a + b = 0 (mod 7)
- 5 * (10a + b) = 0 (mod 7)
- 49a + a + 5b = 0 (mod 7)
- a + 5b - 7b = 0 (mod 7)
- a - 2b = 0 (mod 7)
A seven-sided polygon is a heptagon. The regular n-gons for n ≤ 6 can be constructed by compass and straightedge alone, but the regular heptagon cannot. Figurate numbers representing heptagons (including seven) are called heptagonal numbers. Seven is also a centered hexagonal number.
There are seven frieze groups, the groups consisting of symmetries of the plane whose group of translations is isomorphic to the group of integers.
A group or a series of seven is a heptad.
7 is the only dimension, besides the familiar 3, in which a vector cross product can be defined.
In numeral systems
In quaternary, 7 is the smallest prime with a composite sum of digits.
Arabic glyph
In the beginning, various Hindus wrote 7 more or less in one stroke as a curve that looks like an uppercase J upside down. The western Ghubar Arabs' main contribution was to make the longer line diagonal rather than straight, though they showed some tendencies to making the character more rectilinear. The eastern Arabs developed the character from a 6-look-alike into an uppercase V-look-alike. Both modern Arab forms influenced the European form, a two-stroke character consisting of a horizontal upper line joined at its right to a line going down to the bottom left corner, a line that is slightly curved in some font variants. As is the case with the European glyph, the Cham and Khmer glyph for 7 also evolved to look like their glyph for 1, though in a different way, and so they were also concerned with making their 7 more different. For the Khmer this often involved adding a horizontal line above the glyph. This is analogous to the horizontal stroke through the middle that is sometimes used in handwriting in the Western world but which is almost never used in computer fonts. This horizontal stroke is, however, important to distinguish the glyph for seven from the glyph for one in writings that use a long upstroke in the glyph for one.
On the seven-segment displays of pocket calculators and digital watches, 7 is the number with the most common glyph variation (0, 6 and 9 also have variant glyphs). Most calculators use three line segments, but on Sharp, Casio and a few other brands of calculators, 7 is written with four line segments.
The reason is that 7 is written as in ① in Japan,Korea and so on.
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In science
- The number of spots in a common ladybug.
Chemistry
Astronomy
In religion
- A highly symbolic number in the Torah, alluding to the infusion of spirituality and Godliness into the Creation. For example:
- God rested on and sanctified the 7th day (Shabbat)
- A seven-day purification period is required for one who has become tamei to become tahor
- The Shemittah (Sabbatical) year arrives every 7th year
- The Jubilee (Yovel) year comes after 7 times 7 years
- The Counting of the Omer leading up to the Giving of the Torah is expressed as "7 times 7 weeks"
- The weekly Torah portion is divided into seven aliyahs, and seven men or boys over the age of 13 are called up for the reading of these aliyahs during Shabbat morning services
- Seven blessings are recited under the chuppah during a Jewish wedding ceremony
- A Jewish bride and groom are feted with seven days of festive meals after their wedding, known as Sheva Berachot ("Seven Blessings")
- The number of Ushpizzin (also known as the "Seven Shepherds") who visit the sukkah during the holiday of Sukkot: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, and David
- The number of nations God told the Israelites they would displace when they entered the land of Israel (Deut. 7:1): the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite
- In Breslov tradition, the seven orifices of the face (2 eyes, 2 nostrils, 2 ears, and the mouth) are called "The Seven Candles"
- The number of churches of Asia to which the Book of Revelation is addressed
- The number of ayat in surat al-Fatiha
- The number of heavens in Islamic tradition
- The number of Earths in Islamic tradition
- The numbers 7, 70, 70,000, etc. are used in Islamic traditions to denote an infinite or high number. In Arabic, 70, 70,000, etc. is used to mean infinite. This is because 1 is the smallest number, 2 is just after 1, 5 and 10 are exact, 4 and 6 are just before and after 5, and 9 is just before 10. This leaves 3, 7, and 8. 8 is closer to the end although it is larger. 8 is also an even number, so divisible by 2. Between 3 and 7, 3 is smaller so 7 is chosen to represent infinite.
- The number of Seven Virtues: Chastity, Abstinence, Diligence, Liberality, Patience, Kindness, and Humility, and the corresponding Seven Deadly Sins: lust, avarice, envy, pride, sloth, gluttony and wrath
- The seven terraces of Mount Purgatory (one per deadly sin)
- The number of sacraments in the Roman Catholic faith
- The number of palms in an Egyptian Sacred Cubit
- The number of heads of the beast of the Book of Revelation, and of some other monsters, like the hydra
- The minor symbol number of yang from the Taoist yin-yang
- The number of times Cain will be avenged upon for the murder of his brother Abel
- The number of ranks in Mithraism
- The number seven is of particular significance within Cherokee cosmology
In mythology
- In Khasi mythology, the seven divine women who were left behind on earth and became the ancestresses of all humankind
- The number of gateways traversed by Inanna during her descent into the underworld
- The number of sleeping men in the Christian myth of the "Seven Sleepers"
- The number of sages in Hindu mythology. Their wives are the goddesses referred to as the "Seven Mothers"
In psychology
- The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two is the title of a 1956 paper by the cognitive psychologist George A. Miller which hypothesises that the effective channel capacity of human senses is equivalent to between 5 and 9 equally-weighted error-less choices.
- When asked to choose a number between 1 and 10, most people will choose 7. It is the most common number thought of off the top of one's head.
In music
Albums
Songs
In sports
In technology
In television
- In an episode of Seinfeld, the name George Costanza desired to give his first-born (with Susan Ross) due to a promise he had made to the widow of Mickey Mantle, whose number was 7
- The name of one of the monsters in the cartoon television show Seven Little Monsters
- A character added to the cast of Married... with Children who was quickly removed.
- 7 is the number of hearts needed by the gentlemen in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" during the episode known to as "hush".
- In Voyager, Seven of Nine (also called Seven for short) is one of the crewmembers.
In film
In other fields
Seven is also:
- The largest number of sticks (or other cylindrical objects) that can be tied into a bundle such that the shape of the bundle remains fixed. This may have led to the number being viewed with mystical significance by ancient man.
- The number of openings into the human head (mouth, two eyes, two ears, two nostrils).
- The number of spheres in the Ptolemaic system
- In Astrology, Libra is the 7th astrological sign of the Zodiac.
- The traditional number of Wonders of the Ancient World.
- Viewed as a lucky number in both Japanese Culture and many Western cultures.
- The number of days in a week. Whether Saturday or Sunday is the seventh day varies across cultures.
- The number of the ages of man into which William Shakespeare divided a lifetime
- The figurative number of seas
- The number of colors of the rainbow (the asteroid 7 Iris is named after the rainbow goddess Iris)
- The number of basic principles of the bushido
- The number of points on a sheriff's star
- The average number of digits that can be stored in short-term memory
- In Galician folklore, a seventh son will be a werewolf. In other folklores, after six daughters, the seventh child is to be a son and a werewolf. In other European folklores, the seventh son of a seventh son will be a vampire.
- When rolling two standard six-sided dice, seven is the number most likely to occur.
- Seven is the sum of any two opposite sides on a standard six-sided die
- The number of dwarves in the movie Snow White
- The number of rings given to the Dwarf Lords in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings
- The Heptarchy, from the (Greek for seven realm, is the name applied by historians to the period (500-850 AD) in English history after the Anglo-Saxon conquest of England, derived from the seven kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Sussex, and Wessex, which eventually merged to become the Kingdom of England during the early 10th century.
- September was the seventh month in the ancient Roman calendar, as its name indicates. After the reform that led to the current order, the seventh month is July.
- Septidi was the seventh day of the decade in the French Revolutionary Calendar
- The traditional count of Basque provinces as expressed in the slogan Zazpiak Bat
- The Seven Sages of Greece: Solon, Chilon, Thales, Bias, Cleobulus, Pittacus and Periander.
- Cibola was the legendary Seven Cities of Gold the Spanish thought existed.
- In tarot, card No. 7 is "the Chariot"
Names and titles
Seven or
7 is all or part of a number of names and titles of people, artworks or organizations, including:
- Sevens, a card game
- An agency of photojournalists founded by seven photographers
- Canadian fashion photographer Sev Seven
- Musician/actor Andre Benjamin's and singer Erykah Badu's son, Seven.
- The stage name of musician Keith Volpone
- SE7EN (singer), a Korean R&B/hip-hop singer
- Part of the names of:
- Aleksis Kivi's "Seven Brothers", the most famous book of Finnish literature
- Seven Pillars of Wisdom, a book written by T. E. Lawrence
- The Secret Seven, name of children adventure book by Enid Blyton
- The book Seven Years in Tibet
- Kurosawa's film The Seven Samurai, that inspired the 1960 movie with Steve McQueen The Magnificent Seven and its own sequels
- Several groupings called the Seven Sisters
- The Anime Eureka Seven
- The Seven Virgins:
- Seven Sisters, a 1998 song album by pop singer Meja
- Seven of Nine, a crewmember in the Star Trek universe
- The World Sevens Series in Rugby Union, including the Hong Kong Sevens
- the sport itself
- The Seven Network of Australia
- The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, a book by Stephen Covey
- The metal band Avenged Sevenfold, also known as A7X.
- Seven Nation Army, a single by the White Stripes
- 007, codename for James Bond, a fictional secret spy agent
- In the InuYasha series, the Shichinintai are, as their name says, a band of seven mercenaries.
- In the Fushigi Yuugi series, the four beast gods each have seven warriors. The Genbu Seven, the Byakko Seven, the Seiryuu Seven, and the Suzaku Seven.
- The number of individual personalities serving Harman Smith as part of the group of assassins called the Killer7, hence the title of the game.
- In the catalan culture, 7 is present in a lot of popular stories like "Les set cabretes i el llop".
Historical years
A.D. 7,
7 B.C.,
1907,
2007, etc.
See also
Luck | Integers
7 (عدد) | 7 | Nombre set | 7 (tal) | Sieben | Siete | Sep | Zazpi | 7 (nombre) | 7 | Sette | 7 (מספר) | Septem | 7 (skaičius) | 7 (szám) | Chicōme | 7 (getal) | 7 | Sette | 7 (tall) | Talet 7 | 7 (liczba) | Sete | 7 (число) | Seven | 7 (število) | 7 (luku) | 7 (tal) | 7 (bilang) | 7 | 7 (sayı) | 7