Jim Benton: 40 40s

AN INTRODUCTION WITH 40 APPLICATIONS
(compiled from many sources, including Wiki, Google, and Nikinoogle)

AKA 4T and 4D, 101000 (binary), and XL (Roman), forty is the only number in English whose letters appear in alphabetical order. It’s also an octagonal number (whatever that means), the sum of first four pentagonal numbers and thus pentagonal pyramidal number (see above), and a semiperfect number (equal to the sum of some of its proper divisors)*. It is the atomic number of zirconium and, at 40 below designates the temperature at which Celsius and Fahrenheit are equal.

* Some of the even more obscure Wikipedian information was simply excluded.

RELIGIOUS SOURCES
1. 40 days and nights it rained in Noah’s story (the image at left, "The Deluge," is from Gustave Dore's 1865 Illustrated Bible; that's Noah's boat sailing away, top right)
2. 40 years the Children of Israel wandered in the Wilderness
3. 40 days and nights the Devil tempted Jesus
4. 40 days of fasting during Lent
5. 40 days of mourning in Islam
6. 40 age at which Muhammad receives first revelation from an angel (see #33.)
7. An-Nawani’s Forty Hadiths (42 sayings of the Prophet)*
#40 "Be in the world as though you were a stranger or a wayfarer.”

* Obviously, An-Nawani encountered a problem familiar to many of this site’s contributors.

HISTORICAL SOURCES
8. 40th state – South Dakota (or was it North Dakota? Grover knows.)
9. From the 1840s: “54.40 or fight!” –Polk, 1844 (“Well, 49 is fine.” – Polk, 1846)

FOOTBALL SOURCES
(both religious and historical)

Dallas Cowboys
10. 1961 Jim Harris S OU
11. 1963-64 Jim Stiger RB Washington
12. 1969 Bobby Joe Conrad WR A&M
13. 1973-74 Les Strayhorn RB East Carolina (Les went on to win a Grey Cup Championship with the Montreal Alouttes in 1977).
14. 1980 Eric Hunt CB Cal State – San Jose
15. 1983-97 Bill Bates S Tennessee
16. 2000-01 Sean Key S Florida State
17. 2002-03 Keith Davis S Sam Houston
18. 2005-06 Justin Beriault S Ball State

NFL Retired Jerseys
19. Pat Tillman – Arizona Cardinals
20. Mike Haynes – Patriots
21. Gale Sayers – Chicago Bears
22. Joe Morrison – NY Giants
23. Tom Brookshier – Philadelphia Eagles

NFL Hall of Fame
24. Crazy Legs Hirsch – LA Rams
25. Gale Sayers – Chicago Bears

LITERARY SOURCES
26. The Famous Forty Canon of Oz (Reilly & Lee, 1900-1963)
27. Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves
28. North Dallas Forty by Pete Gent (1973) North Dallas After 40 (1989)
North Dallas Forty – Nick Nolte, Mack Davis (1979)
29. Forty Guns – Barbara Stanwyck, Barry Sullivan, Gene Barry (1958)
30. Forty Acres and a Goat: A Memoir by Will Campbell (1986)

FAMILIAR SOURCES
31. 40 acres and a mule
32. 40 Acres & A Mule Film Works (Spike Lee)
33. Life begins at 40.
34. Lordy, Lordy, look who’s forty!
35. 40-yard dash
36. Top Forty (that's Casey Kasem in the photo at left)
37. 40 winks
38. 40 lashes
39. 40 hour work week
40. The 40 acres (UT Austin) (also the back 40 (south 40, north 40 but never front 40, east 40, or west 40)