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Ten

The ancient Greeks gave ten a shape with ten sides and ten corners. Such a shape is called a decagon, which means "ten corners." The Greeks also thought of ten as a triangle made out of the first...

Nine

The ancient Greeks thought of nine as a shape with nine sides and nine corners. Such a shape is called a nonagon, which means "nine corners." They also thought of nine as nine dots arranged in the...

Eight

The Greeks of long ago thought of eight as a shape with eight sides and eight corners. Such a shape is called an octagon, a name that means "eight corners." They also saw eight as a shape called a...

Seven

The ancient Greeks thought of seven as a shape with seven sides and seven corners. Such a shape is called a heptagon, which means "seven corners." Seven seemed like a special, magical number to...

Six

> Long ago, the Greeks discovered something very odd about six. It can > be divided evenly by three numbers that are less than itself---one, > two, and three. And, these three numbers add up to six!...

Five

Think of the number five as five dots that you can arrange in a flat shape that has five sides and five corners, or angles. A shape of this kind is called a pentagon, a name that means "five...

Four

If you think of four as four dots, you can show the dots as a square. And that's how the ancient Greeks thought of four---as a shape with four sides and four corners. Four is an even number. It can...

Three

If you think of three as three dots, you can show it as a triangle. A triangle is a shape with three sides and three angles, or corners. That's how the ancient Greeks thought of three. The Greeks...

Two

Two is the first even number---a number that can be broken apart and made into two smaller numbers that are exactly the same. Break two apart and you get a one and a one. Long ago, both the Chinese...

One

One is a thing all by itself. But when you put ones together, you get other numbers. You can make every number using ones. You can't do that with any other number. The ancient Greeks were fond of...