In Islam, when a man dies for g-d, he get's 72 virgins. I was just wondering why 72? why such a random number?

72 = 8 x 9 = (2 x 2 x 2) x (3 x 3) = 2^3 x 3^2

So, 72 is the product of 2 cubed and 3 squared.

Not that random. :)

I'm not that good at math (what-so-ever) so i have no idea what you just said... :(
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by fuzzy_rabbit on March 24th, 2007
Just that 72 has a nice little skewed symmetry to it - three twos times two threes. That may be what attracted Arabs to it all those centuries ago (They were quite important when it comes to Maths... much better than us europeans.)
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by hijklmno on March 24th, 2007
Pretty clever. It's an intriguing idea. I wondered if there was some local unit of measure (like the European "dozen") that might have led up to 72. In my answer, I noted that some commentators said 70; I don't know why they'd pick that number, either. Why not a hundred, such a nice round number?
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by Ankhorite on March 24th, 2007
To me, 70 *is* a random number. yes, it's 10x7, but the 10 is pretty boring. 72 is also 6x12, but that's not got much going for it. When it comes to Islamic mathematics, you got very complicated ideas. I'll do a bit of research and see what I can find!
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by hijklmno on March 24th, 2007
12 is an important number, it appears in religious stuff a lot.
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by Retired From The Internet on August 19th, 2010

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