Re: The difficulties of being weirder than English

Garth Wallace wrote:

>> Mathematics become very interesting when you count: zero, half, couple,
>> couple and half, double couple, double couple and half,... groupe.
> Not necessarily. AIUI, it just means nouns would be inflected
> identically for singular and dual, but doesn't restrict the numeral
> system. If English used a singular=dual system, counting hands would be
> like "one hand, two hand, three hands, four hands".
I was talking in a society where 2 is very important, where 1 is a half. I
was also trying to be weirder than English. That's what Amanda wanted.

>> Yes, mathematics must be in base 6 or 12... or 4 or 8 or 16... You
>> choose.
> I don't see why...
And I don't see why not... I was thinking out loud, keeping in my mind the
hypothesis that 1 is a half and "couple" is the base unit of everything.

_When_ I counted this way, it felt right to write 6 as "group". (I was
really thinking out loud, I wrote it in french.) This defined the base 6
mathematics. When I re-read my sentence, I realized that "group" could be
used instead of "double couple", that would be a base 4 system. But base 6
and base 4 aren't easy, the numbers become very long very soon. That's why I
proposed base 12, base 8 or base 16.

Maybe I wrote "must be" but I offered five options, plus the option to
choose. I don't intend to learn you how to read but I think it lessens a lot
the obligation contained in "must be".

Any way, I was trying to be weirder than English and what's weirder that
base 10? Any other base. Besides, Amanda didn't specify the number of
fingers of her aliens. Maybe they have "couple and half" fingers on each
"half" hand... or "group" fingers on their "couple" hand(s)?  ;-)

See ya,

--
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Remi Villatel
maxilys_@_tele2.fr
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