18 (eighteen) is the natural number following 17 and preceding 19. It equals ten and eight, twice nine, nine times two or three times six.

In mathematics

Eighteen is a composite number, its proper divisors being 1, 2, 3, 6 and 9. Three of these divisors (3, 6 and 9) add up to 18, hence 18 is a semiperfect number. Eighteen is the first inverted square-prime of the form p.q² . .

It is a heptagonal number, and as the sum of the first three pentagonal numbers, it is a pentagonal pyramidal number. It is also the sum of the totient function for the first seven integers.

Eighteen is the second abundant number with the aliquot sum of 21 (117% in abundance) in the aliquot sequence (18,21,11,1,0) thus being the first composite number in the 11-aliquot tree. Eighteen is the aliquot sum of only one number the square 289.

In base 10 it is a Harshad number.

18, aside from 0, is the only number that equals twice the sum of its decimal digits.

18 = eighteen = ayteen!.

In science

• The atomic number of argon

In religion and literature

• The Hebrew word for "life" is חי (chai), which has a numerical value of 18. Consequently, the custom has arisen in Jewish circles to give donations and monetary gifts in multiples of 18 as an expression of blessing for long life.

• In Judaism, in the Talmud; Pirkei Avot (5:25), Rabbi Yehudah ben Teime gives the age of 18 as the appropriate age to get married ("Ben shmonah esra lechupah", at eighteen years old to the Chupah (marriage canopy)). (See Coming of age, Age of majority).

• Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22 was originally named Catch-18 because of the Hebrew meaning of the number, but was amended to the published title to avoid confusion with another war novel, Mila 18. N James. The Early Composition History of Catch-22. In Biographies of Books: The Compositional Histories of Notable American Writings, J Barbour, T Quirk (edi.) pp. 262-90. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1996

• There are 18 chapters in the Bhagavad Gita, which is contained in the Mahabharata, which has 18 books. The Kurukshetra War which the epic depicts, is between 18 armies (11 on the Kuru side, 7 on the Pandava).

As lucky or unlucky number

• In Chinese tradition, the number 18, normally 十八 (shí bā), can also be read as 幺八 (yāo bā), which sounds like 要发 (yào fā), meaning that one is going to prosper. Thus, building floors numbered "18" are often very expensive in ChinaFact: date=February 2007

Age 18

In many parts of the world, 18 is the age minimum for purchasing tobacco and alcoholic beverages. It is also the voting age in many countries. During the Vietnam War, Americans could be drafted at an age as low as 18, but were not allowed to vote in most states until they were 21. A movement spread to lower the voting age, and in 1971, the Twenty-sixth Amendment extended a guarantee of suffrage to anyone 18 years or older in all states. The voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 in the U.K. and many other nations around that time.