WORLD OF FIVE

We encounter a copious number of references to the number five in our lives. They range from the mundane to the religious, from the silly to the serious. Some you are aware of, some you are not and surely there are some you know that are not mentioned in this book. The number has been subject of intense interest for millennia and still fascinates us today. The pentagram is an object transcending continents, laden with religious and philosophical meanings. All we need is to glimpse at our hands to recognize that the many everyday occurrences of five are a result of human effort to mirror our physical appearance. In that regard we are of course not alone, there are five fingered creatures of all kinds, animals and plants, as we will also discover. The figures of objects and living creatures with five fingers, arms and other appendages lead to the geometrical manifestation of the number, the pentagon with its spectacular symmetry and algebraic relationships. Carrying the pentagon into the space and looking into the skies shows some really intriguing patterns related to five, five very specific gravitational locations in planetary systems and there are even some mysteries surrounding our fifth planet. We will also look into the universe and contemplate the importance of the number's spatial geometric manifestation as the possible basis of the structure of the universe. The extremely wide spread mathematical presence of the number is also remarkable. We will see some of these important roles and related boundaries that will make us wonder about the intrinsic nature of the number. All in all, this is a journey you never thought about taking, but upon completing it you will recognize this number as another mysterious component of our lives that we cannot fully comprehend.