ninetyeight

Ninety-eight, written as 98, is the natural number that comes after ninety-seven and before ninety-nine. It is even and composite, with prime factorization 2 × 7². In Roman numerals it is XCVIII. In binary it is 1100010; in octal, 142; in hexadecimal, 0x62.

It is two less than 100. Its square is 9604. The divisors are 1, 2, 7, 14, 49, and 98; the sum of proper divisors is 73, so 98 is a deficient number. It is not a square and not prime.

In science and computing, 98 has notable associations: it is the atomic number of californium, a radioactive element used as a neutron source, and in ASCII, the decimal code 98 corresponds to the lowercase letter 'b'.

In popular culture, the boy band 98 Degrees took its name from the approximate normal human body temperature in Fahrenheit, about 98.6 °F; the group formed in 1996.