2

2 (two) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 1 and preceding 3. It is the smallest and the only even prime number.

Because it forms the basis of a duality, it has religious and spiritual significance in many cultures.

As a word

Two is most commonly a determiner used with plural countable nouns, as in two days or I'll take these two. Two is a noun when it refers to the number two as in two plus two is four.

Etymology of two

The word two is derived from the Old English words Template:Lang (feminine), Template:Lang (neuter), and Template:Lang (masculine, which survives today in the form twain).

The pronunciation Template:IPA, like that of who is due to the labialization of the vowel by the w, which then disappeared before the related sound. The successive stages of pronunciation for the Old English Template:Lang would thus be Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, and finally Template:IPA.

Mathematics

An integer is determined to be even if it is divisible by two. When written in base 10, all multiples of 2 will end in 0, 2, 4, 6, or 8. 2 is the smallest and the only even prime number, and the first Ramanujan prime. It is also the first superior highly composite number, and the first colossally abundant number.

Geometry

A digon is a polygon with two sides (or edges) and two vertices.Template:Rp Two distinct points in a plane are always sufficient to define a unique line in a nontrivial Euclidean space.

Set theory

A set that is a field has a minimum of two elements. A Cantor space is a topological space $2^{\mathbb{N}}$ homeomorphic to the Cantor set.Template:Citation needed

Base 2

Template:See also Binary is a number system with a base of two, it is used extensively in computing.

List of basic calculations

Multiplication	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	50	100
2 × x	2	4	6	8	10	12	14	16	18	20	22	24	26	28	30	32	34	36	38	40	42	44	46	48	50	100	200

Division	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10		11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
2 ÷ x	2	1	0.Template:Overline	0.5	0.4	0.Template:Overline	0.Template:Overline	0.25	0.Template:Overline	0.2		0.Template:Overline	0.1Template:Overline	0.Template:Overline	0.Template:Overline	0.1Template:Overline	0.125	0.Template:Overline	0.Template:Overline	0.Template:Overline	0.1
x ÷ 2	0.5		1.5	2	2.5	3	3.5	4	4.5	5		5.5	6	6.5	7	7.5	8	8.5	9	9.5	10

Exponentiation	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10		11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
2Template:Sup	2	4	8	16	32	64	128	256	512	1024		2048	4096	8192	16384	32768	65536	131072	262144	524288	1048576
xTemplate:Sup	1		9		25	36	49	64	81	100		121	144	169	196	225	256	289	324	361	400

Evolution of the Arabic digit

The digit used in the modern Western world to represent the number 2 traces its roots back to the Indic Brahmic script, where "2" was written as two horizontal lines. The modern Chinese and Japanese languages (and Korean Hanja) still use this method. The Gupta script rotated the two lines 45 degrees, making them diagonal. The top line was sometimes also shortened and had its bottom end curve towards the center of the bottom line. In the Nagari script, the top line was written more like a curve connecting to the bottom line. In the Arabic Ghubar writing, the bottom line was completely vertical, and the digit looked like a dotless closing question mark. Restoring the bottom line to its original horizontal position, but keeping the top line as a curve that connects to the bottom line leads to our modern digit.

In fonts with text figures, digit 2 usually is of x-height, for example, .Template:Citation needed

In science

• The first magic number.

See also

• Binary number

External links

• Prime curiosities: 2