this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2024
23 points (63.5% liked)

Showerthoughts

29643 readers
802 users here now

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. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.

Rules

  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
  3. Avoid politics (NEW RULE as of 5 Nov 2024, trying it out)
  4. Posts must be original/unique
  5. Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
23
We should count in base four (feddit.nu)
submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 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:

  1. Single
  2. pair
  3. Multiple
  4. Single nothing
  5. Single single
  6. Single pair
  7. Single multiple
  8. Pair of nothing
  9. Pair of singels
  10. 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?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I'm not a native English speaker so you (and everyone else here) are probably right. I thought it meant the same thing as the Swedish word "flera" whilst the proper translation seems to be "ett flertal"

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

I think it differs. To me, "flera" is like 3-5 maybe? Perhaps 4-10 in some cases. And I sometimes hear people use "par" to mean 3, probably short for "ett par tre stycken", so a poorly defined 2-3 that sometimes is 3.