magic number

Meaning

1. The number of neutrons or protons in nuclei which are required to fill the major quantum shells, and thus produce exceptionally stable nuclei: 2, 8, 20, 28, 50, 82 and 126.
2. A metric used to determine a team's required performance to make the playoffs.
3. (broadly) A metric used to determine a team's required performance to make the playoffs.
4. A number which is manually entered into source code, rather than defined somewhere as a named constant; especially one which is arbitrary or lacks explanation.
5. A sentinel value which cannot occur in normal use, typically used as a placeholder (e.g. a fictitious date such as 2000-02-32).
6. A hash code, such as those used by some webmail servers to keep track of sessions.
7. A number or pattern in a binary file that identifies the filetype.

Synonyms

atomic number

Translations

magische Ziffer

magische Zahl

nombre magique

numero magico

número mágico

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