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← 15 16 17 →
← 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 → List of numbers Integers ← 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 →
Cardinal	sixteen
Ordinal	th
Numeral system	hexadecimal
Factorization	${\displaystyle 2^{4}}$
Divisors	1, 2, 4, 8, 16
Greek numeral	ΙϚ´
Roman numeral	XVI
Binary	100002
Ternary	1213
Senary	246
Octal	208
Duodecimal	1412
Hexadecimal	1016

16 (sixteen) is the natural number following 15 and preceding 17. 16 is a composite number, and a square number, being 4 = 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 used to 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 5's and 5 lower beads to represent the 1's, the 7 beads can represent from a hexadecimal digit from 0 to 15 in each column.

In mathematics

As a power of 2 it has an aliquot sum one less than itself; 15, and is the fifth composite member of the 3-aliquot tree having the 7 member aliquot sequence (16, 15, 9, 4, 3, 1,0).

Sixteen is the first number to be the aliquot sum of a lesser number; 12, it is also the aliquot sum of the greater number; the discrete semiprime, 26. It is the fourth power of two.

Sixteen is the only integer that equals m and n, for some unequal integers m and n (m = 4, n = 2, or vice versa). It has this property because 2 = 2 × 2. It is also equal to 2 (see tetration).

15 and 16 form a Ruth–Aaron pair under the second definition in which repeated prime factors are counted as often as they occur.

Since it is possible to find sequences of 16 consecutive integers such that each inner member shares a factor with either the first or the first member, 16 is an Erdős–Woods number. The smallest such range of 16 consecutive integers is from 2184 to 2200.

In bases 20, 24 and 30, sixteen is a 1-automorphic number (displayed as the numeral 'G').

16 is a centered pentagonal number.

16 is the base of the hexadecimal number system, which is used extensively in computer science.

16 appears in the Padovan sequence, preceded by the terms 7, 9, 12 (it is the sum of the first two of these).

In science

• The atomic number of sulfur.
• Group 16 of the periodic table are the Chalcogens.

Age 16

• Sixteen is the minimum age for being allowed an official beginners driver's license with parental consent in many U.S. states and in Canada. In Australia, Iceland, Norway and the Isle of Man, it is the age one can begin to get a learner's licence.
• In some states in the U.S, and some provinces in Canada, it is the age one can obtain a learner's permit.
• Sixteen is the minimum age for getting an adult job in most states and provinces across the globe.
• Sixteen is the minimum age that one can drop out of school in most states of the US (however, restrictions apply and vary depending on state).
• In the United States, female sixteen year olds earn the right to privacy laws surrounding OBGYN practices.
• In the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy, it is the legal minimum age for a person to purchase any tobacco product.
• Sixteen is the age of consent for many jurisdictions around the world.
• For its "coming of age" significance, this age has inspired the titles of many songs, such as "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen", "You're Sixteen", "Sweet Sixteen", "U16 Girls" "Sweet Little Sixteen" and "Sixteen Candles".
• Sixteen is the minimum age to get married with parental consent in many countries and without parental consent in Scotland.
• Sixteen is the legal drinking age in France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, the Netherlands and Portugal.
• In the Netherlands, sixteen is the age when all adult rights are granted, but the age of majority is 18.
• Minimum age at which one can buy, rent, purchase, buy tickets to, or view a 16+ rated movie in the province of Quebec. It is also the minimum age at which one can accompany a minor under 13 while buying, renting, or purchasing tickets to a 13+ rated movie in the province of Quebec.
• Minimum age at which one can donate blood with parental consent in many states.
• Minimum age at which one can obtain a 10 year passport in the United States and Australia.
• Minimum age at which one can join the Armed Forces in the United Kingdom.
• Minimum age when you can move out with your parent's consent.

In sports

Association football

• The number of teams that qualified for the finals of the FIFA World Cup from 1934 through 1978 (although for various reasons, only 15 competed in the 1938 and 1950 finals).
• The number of teams that qualified for the finals of the FIFA Women's World Cup from 1999 through 2011.

Auto racing

• The number of a car in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.run by Roush Fenway Racing and its predecessor, Roush Racing, from 1992–2000 and 2002–present. Since the car's return to the Cup Series, it has been driven by Greg Biffle.

College athletics

• The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa has 16 different teams on probation at the same time.

Multiple sports

The jersey number 16 has been retired by several North American sports teams in honor of past playing greats:

• In Major League Baseball:
  • The Chicago White Sox, for Hall of Famer Ted Lyons.
  • The Detroit Tigers, for Hall of Famer Hal Newhouser.
  • The New York Yankees, for Hall of Famer Whitey Ford.
• In the NFL:
  • The Kansas City Chiefs, for Hall of Famer Len Dawson.
  • The New York Giants, for Hall of Famer Frank Gifford.
  • The San Francisco 49ers, for Hall of Famer Joe Montana.
• In the NBA:
  • The Boston Celtics, for Hall of Famer Satch Sanders.
  • The Detroit Pistons and Milwaukee Bucks, both for Hall of Famer Bob Lanier.
  • The Golden State Warriors, for Al Attles.
• In the NHL:
  • The Buffalo Sabres, for Hall of Famer Pat LaFontaine.
  • The Los Angeles Kings, for Hall of Famer Marcel Dionne.
  • The Montreal Canadiens, first for Hall of Famer Henri Richard and later for a second Hall of Famer, Elmer Lach.
  • The Philadelphia Flyers, for Hall of Famer Bobby Clarke.
  • The St. Louis Blues, for Hall of Famer Brett Hull.
  • The Vancouver Canucks, for Trevor Linden.
• In U.S. college athletics, the number has also been retired by the football program of the University of Tennessee for Peyton Manning.

In other fields

• The current Roman Catholic Pope is Pope Benedict XVI.
• King of France (August 1754 – 21 January 1793) Louis XVI of France
• There are sixteen ounces in an avoirdupois pound.
• There are sixteen pawns in a chess set and each player in a chess game starts with sixteen pieces

• "The Sixteen" is an English choir performing early religious music.
• Sixteen is a Polish band that represented Poland in the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest.
• The Cadillac Sixteen.
• There are sixteen different personality types in the Myers-Briggs classification system.
• A note played for one-sixteenth the duration of a whole note is called a sixteenth note or a semiquaver.
• In the 16-bit era, 16-bit microprocessor ran 16-bit applications.
• Sixteen Kingdoms, part of Chinese history.
• Canada's Yellowhead Highway is designated as Highway 16.
• Interstate 16 is the designation for a US interstate highway in Georgia.
• The fighter jet, the F-16 Fighting Falcon.
• 16 mm film was originally an amateur movie format, but is now used by professionals.
• "16" is a song by American band Green Day.
• The M16 rifle.
• The number 16 is the symbol of the Day of solidarity with political prisoners and victims of the Lukashenka regime in Belarus, which is commemorated on 16th of every months by demonstrations and flash mobs worldwide.
• A sixteen is a slang term for a verse in a hip hop song, which are often written in sixteen-bar stanzas.
• Android 16 of the Dragonball Z television series.
• The amount of waking hours in a day in an "8 hours of sleep" schedule.
• In the story of the Sleeping Beauty, a spell is placed on the princess that when she reaches her 16th birthday, she will "prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die".
• 16 is the number of the French department Charente
• Many bank card numbers are 16 digits long.
• There is a No Doubt song titled "Sixteen" on the album Tragic Kingdom.
• The number 16, is most commonly used by Dicksonn Tan. Dicksonn claims that it is the magical number 16. Every thing he does must be related to 16, regardless of the price, or even size of it.
• The metalcore band Demon Hunter has a song titled "Sixteen" on their Storm the Gates of Hell album.
• 16 is one of "the Numbers" on the television series Lost.

References

1. R. K. Guy, Unsolved Problems in Number Theory New York: Springer-Verlag (2004): B28
2. Lesson plan explaining the reasoning behind the hip-hop slang "sixteen"

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• Integers