Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.

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We should count in base four (feddit.nu)

submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

45 comments fedilink hide all child comments

We have basic words for the numbers zero to three, so why not use them to count?

None (0)
Single (1)
pair (2)
Multiple (3+ but we'll use it as three)

So with those "digits" we can construct some numbers:

Single
pair
Multiple
Single nothing
Single single
Single pair
Single multiple
Pair of nothing
Pair of singels
Pair of pairs

And of course we can construct bigger numbers like:
42 = 4²×2+4¹×2+4⁰×2 = pair of pairs of pairs
128 = 4³×2 = pair of absolute complete nothinges For this last one I just use some adjectives to repeat the "nothing" as it looks really weird with multiple nothing in a row.

The distance between Stockholm and Gothenburg is a single multiple of none multiple multiples

Could I have a single multiple of bananas please?

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

OP is clearly a troll:

In fact, trolls traditionally count like this: one, two, three . . . many, and people assume this means they can have no grasp of higher numbers.
They don't realize that many can be a number. As in: one, two,three, many, many-one, many-two, many-three, many many, many-many-one, many-many-two, many-many-three, many many many, many-many-many-one, many-many-many-two, many-many-many-three, LOTS.
Terry Pratchett - Men at Arms

[–] [email protected] 23 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Yes, I'm indeed a traditional Swedish troll. Here I am, I'm the one to the right with red hair on this image:

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

No idea why but this reminds me of

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

Probably because black dudes make you think of Swedish stuff

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

But everyone knows camels are the better mathematicians, having always used base infinity.

Lack of fingers was another big spur to the development of camel intellect. Human mathematical development had always been held back by everyone’s instinctive tendency, when faced with something really complex in the way of triform polynomials or parametric differentials, to count fingers. Camels started from the word go by counting numbers.

Terry Pratchett - Pyramids