Count On
Numberland
Forty-eight
FORTY-EIGHT
Once my teacher asked Which is more
four dozen eggs or forty-eight?
The answer was of course the same.
Teacher, I said, thanks for asking it.
But the answer depends on the basket.
With a red pen she circled my name.
John Agard
Constellations? The Greeks had an inkling
They knew FORTY-EIGHT- a fair sprinkling
But despite all their craft
They'd spied just over half-
There's forty more up there a-twinkling
A Stanton
There were 48 constellations of stars known to the ancient Greeks.
Ezekiel, one of the books of the Old Testament, has 48 chapters. Verse 25:17 reached heightened fame after featuring in the film Pulp Fiction.
Double cream is 48% butterfat.
48 is the smallest number with 10 factors: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, 24, 48 .
The Physiologus was a bestiary of 48 stories written by the Greeks in the second century.
Composer Johann Sebastian Bach wrote 48 preludes and fugues for keyboard.
The cheviot hills form 48 kilometres of the border between England and Scotland. For centuries they were a traditional battleground.
China has 48 cities with populations over 1 million.
The gothic cathedral of Beauvais in France had the tallest choir of any at 48 metres until it collapsed within years of being built.
The cuckoo lays one egg every 48 hours in the nests of other birds - it is known as a brood parasite.
The Gallery
