Because the number you're reasoning about is the number of spears he wished for, not half the number he wished for, so mathematically, the logic holds for 3 different possible wished for integer values.

To arrive at precisely 12002 you need to make a further assumption which nobody has explained so far.

Also, a minor point, but that he wished for an integer number of spears is another assumption. Albeit a very reasonable seeming one, it's an assumption none the less. He could have wished for 12 thousand and π spears, for example. And no, I have no idea what you'd do with that ~14% of a spear.

If this were an SAT question, and upvotes correlated to what people were answering, well, the majority got this question wrong.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You forgot a zero, but yeah. Also I think they're talking about the movie, not the meme. In the context of the meme we can safely assume he meant 12,002 spears. (Let's not assume fractional spears are a thing.)

[–] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They are a thing, but I don't think anyone is hoping for those.

[–] LotrOrc@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

If it's the pointy end it could still be useful though

[–] Thief_of_Crows@sh.itjust.works -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

1201, 1202, or 1203 spears.

[–] Enkers@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

They don't think it be like it is, but it do.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯