I’m in an elevator with two other people. When it reaches the first floor, one person gets out and six get in. When it reaches the second floor, three people get out and twelve get in. At the third floor, five leave and nine enter. It rises to the fourth floor, one person gets on and the doors close. Suddenly, the elevator cable snaps and the car smashes to the ground. No one survives the fall, yet I’m alive and know exactly how many people go on and off the elevator at every floor. How is this possible?
I have palms but not on hands,
I offer foods from distant lands,
When at my peak you’ll see me smoke,
I’m famous for my friendly folk,
My flowers grow and yet they lay,
There’s fire where a man will play,
I’m sure you know we’re family,
You’re welcome to come stay with me.
I have many feathers to help me fly. I have a body and head but I’m not alive. Your strength determines how far I go. You can hold me in your hand, but I’m never thrown.
By setting the snooze time to 9 minutes, the alarm clock only needs to watch the last digit of the time. So, if you hit snooze at 6.45, the alarm goes off again when the last digit equals 4. They couldn’t make it 10 minutes, otherwise the alarm would go off right away, or it would take more circuitry.
Noon and midnight are both 12 o’clock and the Twelve Days of Christmas is a popular Christmas carol.
There are twelve face cards in a standard 52-card deck and twelve is the largest number with one syllable.
There are twelve steps in Alcoholics Anonymous, a troy pound is 12 ounces, there were 12 tribes of Israel and a popular movie was called, “Twelve Angry Men” (12 members of the jury). There are twelve function keys on your keyboard. F1 often shows a help screen and F5 reloads pages in your browser.
Many recipes measure items by the dozen, adding one more for a baker’s dozen. There are twelve months in a year.
It’s surprising how many times the number twelve shows up in our culture.