Ten
Ten (10) is the natural number following nine and preceding eleven
Ten is a composite number, its proper divisors being 1, 2 and 5.
Ten is the base of the decimal numeral system, by far the most common system of denoting numbers both in spoken and written language. For this reason, any number can be instantly multiplied by ten by adding a zero to the end (855 * 10 = 8,550). The basis for choice of ten is presumably that ten is the number of fingers (digits) of the human body.
The Roman numeral for ten is X (which looks like two V's put together).
The Chinese word numeral for ten is the cross +（Kanji 十）.
Ten is the sum of the first three primes.
A collection of ten items (most often ten years) is called a decade.
A polygon with ten sides is a decagon.
A decapod crustacean has ten limbs.
There are ten cents in a dime, itself one tenth of a dollar. The word was shortened from decime.
People were traditionally tithed one tenth of their produce.
Ten in numeral systems
| Base | system | |
| 2 | binary | 1010 |
| 3 | ternary | 101 |
| 4 | quaternary | 22 |
| 5 | quinary | 20 |
| 6 | senary | 14 |
| 7 | septenary | 13 |
| 8 | octal | 12 |
| 9 | novenary | 11 |
| 10 | decimal | 10 |
| over 11 (hexadecimal) | A or X | |
It takes ten to make a minyan.
With ten being the base of the decimal system, a scale of 1 to 10 is often used to rank things, as a smaller version of a 1-to-100 scale (as is used in percentages). Something that scores perfectly is "a perfect ten". A person who is extremely attractive and physically flawless is often said to be "a ten", from the idea of ranking that person's appearance and sex appeal on a 1-to-10 scale.
Counting from one to ten before speaking is often done in order to cool one's temper.
Other uses include:
Ten is also
- The atomic number of neon
- ASCII and Unicode code point for line feed
- The number of Commandments from God to man in Mosaic law. (Exodus 20:2-17, Exodus 34:12-26, and Deuteronomy 5:6-21)
- There are said to be ten "Lost Tribes" of Israel.
- The designation of United States Interstate 10, a freeway that runs from California to Florida.
- The title of quite a few albums, including recordings by Pearl Jam and LL Cool J. See Ten (album) for a complete list.
See also: eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, integer, list of numbers.
This article is about the number. For the year AD 10, see 10.
