this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2024
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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 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by Hjalamanger@feddit.nu to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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?

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[–] IggyTheSmidge@kbin.social 35 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 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

[–] Hjalamanger@feddit.nu 22 points 7 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:

Me

[–] wabafee@lemmy.world 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

No idea why but this reminds me of

[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 2 points 7 months ago

Probably because black dudes make you think of Swedish stuff

[–] I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world 6 points 7 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