Talk:40 (number)

40 also symbolized "a great but indeterminate number" This is the reason the number appears so often in the bible. I don't have the scholarly background to do a proper wiki page on this. There have been some suggestions that the number was sacred to a Babylonian diety, though it was used by Egyptian, Hebrew, and even Druidic peoples as well. Perhaps someone with the proper scholarly background could expound more on this.

Lent
"In modern Western Christian practice, Lent consists of the 40 days preceding Easter" I don't understand why Catholic traditions are ascribed to ALL Christians. As far as I know, Lent is primarily Catholic. I am not aware of any Protestant religions that observe it, certainly none of the Evangelical religions.


 * The Church of England for a start. Rich Farmbrough 15:56 23  May 2006 (UTC).


 * I have modified this point to clarify the numbering (this article is not the place to hash out Lenten practice). There is in fact a renewed interest in Lent in a great number of protestant, or evangelical churches. Also, Eastern Orthodox believers would take offense at the suggestion that only Catholics practice something they have practiced as long as anyone. I have written an online devotional for Lent (http://www.imby.net/easter), for my evangelical church (vcfp.org), that has been welcomed by believers of all creeds. Carpentis 16:10, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

The word
Forty seems to be a fairly generic name for a field. Potentially "the Top Forty"... It's certainly the name f the village green in Cholsey. Rich Farmbrough 15:56 23  May 2006 (UTC).

in religion
"Adam is believed to be 40 feet tall" -removed. If the belief existed, it is not widespread/consistent enough to have survived, in Christianity, Islam, or Judaism. A quick search reveals some fringe beliefs in early peoples of giant size (a 90 foot tall Adam, etc), but again, no consistency. Carpentis 16:19, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

---

There is a section on religion and middle eastern traditions (including islam), there's a section on islam, and under "In other fields", we find: the number of thieves in Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, from Thousand and One Nights (both the numbers 40 and 1001 are more likely to mean "many" than to indicate a specific number). How about renaming the "In eligion" section e.g. as "In Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions" (which is narrower than "religion" as it excludes e.g. hinduism, but wider as e.g "1001 nights" may be included), collecting all that stuff there?--Niels Ø (noe) 07:44, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Please Verify and Cite
The following needs to be verified and cited:


 * 40 (forty) is the natural number following 39 and preceding 41.

And are there alternative viewpoints to be represented here? Someone somewhere must object to this ordering. Brentt 22:21, 19 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Curious as to what school you went to that taught you differently what a 'natual' number is. Disinclination 05:04, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

I would ask that the Raffi connection be explored further....Stupidwhiteman 06:06, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Please cite all Biblical passages. Project Judaism should be able to do this very simply.

I removed the references to Raffi and Eternalism -- they don't appear to relate meaningfully to at least what wikipedia has to say about those two terms. Eternalism has nothing to say about the anti-christ and gematria, and Raffi is a dead poet. If I'm off base here, please re-add with a better link to more information about this connection. Cbogart2 (talk) 01:08, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Wikiprojet Judaism
This page has been added to Wikiproject Judaism. Dose that make sense for a general number page? Would it be better to create a separate page on Judaic use of the number 40? Or is it really not a problem at all?--Niels Ø (noe) 18:24, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Merge with -40
Hey everyone, I just proposed that the information from -40(number) be merged with this one, please let me know what you think.--Cronholm144 22:01, 12 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Yes please. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.97.127.68 (talk) 07:31, 22 October 2008 (UTC)

In Islamic Culture section
I am removing this section, it is filled with OR and not one "fact" is cited.

Example: "It can also reflect the fact that "40" in the Arab world can simply mean "a lot" or "many", much in the same way that westerners use the term "dozens"."

This is OR.

The parts about claiming 40 dead in conflicts is also not cited and seems sketchy.N0v3r


 * "This is OR." What is "OR"?  Please define the term. Your example is unclear: why is that passage "OR"? Is it untrue? Can it not be sustained with a citation?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.97.127.68 (talk) 07:33, 22 October 2008 (UTC)

Forty for generation
In the ancient middle-east, forty wasn't a generation but a the lifespan of the people, so forty years can be equal to two or even three generations. So there wasn't any magician or trick to say forty is "too many years" since they didn't expected to live forty years. It's the same to say (currently) "One hundred years" or a century. --Magallanes 01:04, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Loss in translation
Ancient tables mention the world "forty" but it's a common mistake caused by a literal (and wrong) translation. A correct translation must have present the original interpretation of the script (can hard and even in some cases impossible to achieve), for example Richard The Lionheart is not a guy called Richard with a implanted heart and its'n a Therianthropy. So, "40 years in the desert" is a bad translation and cannot be used but "So many years in the desert" is correct.

--Magallanes 01:04, 10 August 2007 (UTC)


 * I think there might actually be some credence to this, although I can't provide any research to back this up. I'm citing a poster I remember seeing in high school with some "fun facts" on it, one of them saying something to the extent of "there was no word in ancient Hebrew for 'many', so they instead used a word which has come down to us to mean 'forty'."  Are there any Hebrew experts who would care to weigh in on this?  Mikaey (talk) 01:23, 14 July 2008 (UTC)


 * Have heard the same, but can only provide a citation for the number 70. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.97.127.68 (talk) 07:35, 22 October 2008 (UTC)

The Biblical David(40=D4+A1+V22+I9+D4) killed Goliath on the 40th day of the Palestinian warrior challenging the Israelites and King David ruled for 40 years. Magen(40=M13+A1+G7+E5+N14), Magen David. 2601:589:4705:C7C0:925:8B03:AE78:63D (talk) 18:25, 30 April 2016 (UTC)

40=quarantine=black death
The word "quarantine" originates from the Venetian dialect form of the Italian quaranta giorni, meaning 'forty days'. This is due to the 40 day isolation of ships and people prior to entering the city of Dubrovnik in Dalmatia - Croatia (formerly known as Ragusa). This was practiced as a measure of disease prevention related to the plague (Black Death).Bigshotnews 01:37, 10 March 2011 (UTC)

Venus
From the article: The planet Venus forms a pentagram in the night sky every eight years...

WTF does that even mean and why is this in the article where there seems no reliable sources for it?--Themadhair (talk) 19:04, 23 March 2011 (UTC)


 * See Pentagram. —Tamfang (talk) 20:14, 30 April 2016 (UTC)

The Venus pentagram is real, but does it actually have a "40-year cycle with a 40-day regression"? 2601:589:4705:C7C0:925:8B03:AE78:63D (talk) 18:19, 30 April 2016 (UTC)

Dead link
During several automated bot runs the following external link was found to be unavailable. Please check if the link is in fact down and fix or remove it in that case!


 * http://www.ngcicproject.org/
 * In IC 1337 on 2011-04-23 17:08:25, Socket Error: 'getaddrinfo failed'
 * In IC 1337 on 2011-04-24 04:34:10, Socket Error: 'getaddrinfo failed'
 * In 10 (number) on 2011-05-23 02:06:58, Socket Error: 'getaddrinfo failed'
 * In 10 (number) on 2011-05-31 22:27:07, Socket Error: 'getaddrinfo failed'
 * In 11 (number) on 2011-06-01 02:53:15, Socket Error: 'getaddrinfo failed'
 * In 138 (number) on 2011-06-01 14:55:19, Socket Error: 'getaddrinfo failed'
 * In 26 (number) on 2011-06-19 05:45:43, Socket Error: 'getaddrinfo failed'
 * In 35 (number) on 2011-06-19 06:47:54, Socket Error: 'getaddrinfo failed'

--JeffGBot (talk) 07:34, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

Etymology
While it is certainly true that vowels are shortened in certain derivations - another example is wild - bewildered - this does not explain why fourteen is spelled with ou, since fifteen (like fifty) is spelled and pronounce with a short "i". I think there is no logical explanation why forty and fourteen are spelled differently. Clearly, a scholarly explanation and citation is needed here. In general, the quirks of English spelling are apparent here, in spite of Noah Webster's efforts to remedy this (at least for the New World). Andreas (T) 21:03, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

Human Anatomy
A human couple has 40 fingers and toes. When the ancients counted on their 10 fingers (Base 10), they could count to 40 by using the three joints and tip of each finger. 2601:589:4705:C7C0:925:8B03:AE78:63D (talk) 18:17, 30 April 2016 (UTC)
 * If we are going to start pointing out the number of fingers and toes of multiple people, we are going to have to modify a lot of articles (60, 80, 100, 120, 140, etc...) Also, could you show how you can use "the three joints and tip of each finger" to count to 40. Is it practical? Was it ever used? Do we have reliable sources stating it? Dhrm77 (talk) 18:56, 30 April 2016 (UTC)


 * Ignore the IP, a Brad Watson (Miami) sock. Doug Weller  talk 13:54, 12 November 2016 (UTC)

Bingo names -
Please see Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Numbers for a centralized discusion as to whether Bingo names should be included in thiese articles. Arthur Rubin (alternate) (talk) 23:34, 3 June 2018 (UTC)

Counting to 40 on 10 fingers
I tweaked... "The number 40 is considered sacred and used in Jewish, Christian, Islamic, and other Middle Eastern traditions to represent in years a generation and may be a result of counting on 10 fingers and subdividing each finger and thumb into its tip and three joints. 40 would then be seen as a limit and a cycle." 73.85.207.19 (talk) 14:43, 14 July 2018 (UTC)


 * I don't believe that is true and I haven't the foggiest where you got that idea from. Dmcq (talk) 16:40, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

Temperature
-40 is fairly widely known as the temperature at which the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales read the same value, but there is no mention of this in the article (even though -40 (number) redirects here) - is it something that would be appropriate to add? Thryduulf (talk) 09:01, 3 September 2018 (UTC)
 * It is already mentioned in the science section.-- JohnBlackburne wordsdeeds 09:52, 3 September 2018 (UTC)
 * So it is. I'm not sure how I missed that on first reading, but as the text uses "−40" (with a minus sign character) my in-text search for "-40" (with a hyphen-minus character) obviously wouldn't find it. Thryduulf (talk) 10:29, 3 September 2018 (UTC)

Islam
Most of the line items have cn since November 2012. Isn't it time we do something about those entries? — Arthur Rubin (talk) 03:21, 4 September 2018 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the. —Community Tech bot (talk) 22:37, 22 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Crush 40 Logo.jpg