6

The remaining six sporadic groups do not divide the order of the friendly giant, which are termed the pariahs (Ly, O'N, Ru, J4, J3, and J1).

The modern 6 can be traced back to the Brahmi numerals of India, which are first known from the Edicts of Ashoka c. 250 BCE.

[23][24][25][26] It was written in one stroke like a cursive lowercase e rotated 90 degrees clockwise.

Gradually, the upper part of the stroke (above the central squiggle) became more curved, while the lower part of the stroke (below the central squiggle) became straighter.

From there, the European evolution to our modern 6 was very straightforward, aside from a flirtation with a glyph that looked more like an uppercase G.[27] On the seven-segment displays of calculators and watches, 6 is usually written with six segments.

Some historical calculator models use just five segments for the 6, by omitting the top horizontal bar.

This glyph variant has not caught on; for calculators that can display results in hexadecimal, a 6 that looks like a "b" is not practical.

To disambiguate the two on objects and documents that can be inverted, the 6 has often been underlined, both in handwriting and on printed labels.