Sarah Doyle
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TEN facts (or not) about the number TEN...

TEN is an anagram of 'net'. A net is a bit like a web. The World Wide Web is called the internet. Internet is an anagram of IR TEN TEN.

The Roman calendar (on which our own is based) was comprised originally of TEN months, with the first six being named after gods, and the final four retaining their numerical monikers until the allocation of a deity:  September, October, November, December - seven, eight, nine, TEN. However, the temporal apple-cart was upset when megalomaniac emperors Julius Caesar and Caesar Augustus decided they wanted months named after them, so crowbarred two new summer months - July and August - into the newly crowded calendar.

There are TEN planets in our Solar System. The TENth planet was discovered in 2005 by Caltech astronomers, who named it Eris. However, the planet was discovered originally by a group of disgruntled Ancient Roman decimalists who powered up a gladiatorial chariot with naturally-occurring uranium and set off to colonise Planet X, as they would have it.

There are TEN colours of the rainbow, not nine, as widely believed. In addition to the invisible infrared and ultraviolet is supraTEN, which is perceptible only as a sound.

Operatic TENors are so called because they can sing TEN times better than all the other opera singers.

There are many songs with TEN in the title. Here are TEN of them:  "10 Out Of 10" by Paulo Nutini; "10 X 10" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs; "Eight by TEN" by Ken Dodd; "Perfect TEN" by The Beautiful South; "TEN Foot Pole" by ZZ Top; "TEN Seconds to Midnight" by The Divine Comedy; "TEN Years Gone" by Led Zeppelin; "TEN Feet Tall" by XTC; "TEN Cent Pistol" by The Black Keys; "Big TEN Inch Record" by Aerosmith.

Popular holiday desTENations include TENby and TENerife. Going twice round Fife doesn't count.

Any American cowboy wishing to settle in Europe could well find that his TEN-gallon hat falls foul of the EU's metric mania, and that such doggedly Imperial headgear may have to be reclassified as a 37.854118-litre hat. Yee-haw.

The TEN Code of radio communication was established in the 1940s by US police and popularised by CB radio enthusiasts and the 1980s film, "Convoy". TEN-FOUR means 'affirmative, message received'. 10-4?

No-one knows why octopi have TENtacles, when clearly they have octacles.