this post was submitted on 24 May 2024
1181 points (97.6% liked)

Science Memes

11440 readers
1038 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] Dicska@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

I never argued that. I wasn't even talking about the word 'ten' in English but the usefulness of the word 'ten' in base 4.

EDIT: I see where you're coming from: base 10 English also has a unique name for something that is not 0-9 or a power of 10 - however, the only reason to this is that they are from base 12. Obviously base 12 has unique words for numbers below the base. But not numbers above it (apart from maybe powers of 12). Which further proves the point.

[โ€“] Randelung@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago

My point is the difference between number system and language. We're seamlessly converting back and forth while writing this, but there's a specific amount in our heads that we're trying to communicate, either by word or by number. The number is ambiguous only if you don't know the base, while the word is ambiguous only if you don't know the language. The meme is - presumably - in English, and they're talking (in speech bubble form), so the misunderstanding doesn't really happen. it's only when a secondary 'language' is introduced - the numbers - that it is possible.

Ten in particular, which we usually write as a two digit number because of historical and biological context, still uniquely describes a certain amount without any relation to it being written as the first two digit number. In any language, you wouldn't translate to one two three ten just because they usually write in base four, you'd translate to whatever their word for the number is that you're trying to translate.