What is it with round numbers?

[glasgowcyclist]

Who sets their alarm clock at 3 minutes to the hour, or seven minutes before the half hour, for example? No-one, I’d imagine.
or no-one in their right mind.

I'm another one with an odd alarm time: 07:39.

I tend to get up as soon as it goes now but I did used to hit snooze (which on this clock is 6 minute intervals) so that it went off again at a more normal display of 07:45 and then I'd get up.

 

[Electric_Andy]

I do find the whole numbers and measurements thing fascinating. For example, I don't know how anyone worked (and works in the USA) with imperial. A mechanic getting a socket that is 5/16ths of an inch, or 21/32nds !! Surely 10mm/15mm is easier. Inch, half inch and 1/4 inch drives would be acceptable, and for some reason are still used even with metric sockets

And we measure fuel economy in miles per gallon, but we sell the fuel in litres. UNderstandable though, as it used to be sold in gallons. Perhaps an example of how we like order, but don't like a change in order.

re: the million/billion thing. I've heard some very entertaining ways to picture large numbers:

One million seconds is about 11 and a half days. One billion seconds is about 32 years

If you earn $45,000 a year, it would take 22 years to amass a fortune of 1 million dollars.
If you earn $45,000 a year, it would take 22,000 years to amass a fortune of one billion dollars.

 

[stephec]

Who sets their alarm clock at 3 minutes to the hour, or seven minutes before the half hour, for example? No-one, I’d imagine.
or no-one in their right mind.

That's what you think.

Although it was only because I spun the minutes round aiming for 40, and couldn't be bothered moving it on one when it stopped at 39. 😂

 

[Andy in Germany]

sorry but I used to before I had children (and had no natural alarm clock). I'd set the alarm for 06:57 so that I'd have time to get myself together mentally before I got up for 07:00! Odd numbers don't bother me usually, apart from the weird thing I have in the car, I won't set the stereo at volume 13, but all other numbers are fine.

I'm astonished that you only needed three minutes to go from "waking up" to "alert enough to deal with kids".

I always needed at least ten times that...

 

[matticus]

Even traditional Welsh used to use base 20 with a key reference at the number fifteen whereby once you got beyond 15 you added units to that number. So 16 was one on 15 and 36 was one on 15 on 20!

I give you ... quatre-vingt-seize !

 

[Dogtrousers]

I did a 98.7 mile ride last year. It would have been my fastest century, after spending all day watching my fit friend receding into the distance. I didn't notice the significance until I'd go a cup of coffee in front of me, and by then there was no going back.

 

[presta]

.

We count in base 10 so it make sense.

10 is round in any base.
(BTW, there are 10 types of people in this world: those who understand binary, and those who don't)

How many on here would ride a bit longer to round up if their ride was 48miles or 98 miles?

I tried to finish my last tour on exactly 1400m. I got 1400.2
It was 27 days, so it wasn't a nice round 50m/day, either. Or a nice round 30 days....

I once finished a ride on Derby rail station and had covered 49.8 miles but not allowed to ride on the platform., so I was peed off for a day or two.

Turn around, cycle 0.1m, then go back to the station.

I think the time/clock thing was based on how to divide a circle, and other counting systems involved the knuckles on the fingers, and the ease of dividing certain numbers into smaller ones, which base 10 doesn't always do.

Originally, the hour was a twelfth of the time between sunrise and sunset, so it varied throughout the year.

Around the time of Napoleon as well as developing the Metric system the French tried to metricate time, but that never took off.

Decimal clocks were made, it irks me that they never caught on.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I do find the whole numbers and measurements thing fascinating. For example, I don't know how anyone worked (and works in the USA) with imperial. A mechanic getting a socket that is 5/16ths of an inch, or 21/32nds !! Surely 10mm/15mm is easier.

Easier in what way? It’s not like you’re doing complicated maths, just selecting the right socket head for the bolt.

 

[Oldhippy]

Zero is a round, well more oval dependent on the font, number. You're welcome.

 

[Jody]

What about 100? It's a square round number!!

5. It's the most even of odd numbers.

 

[matticus]

There should be more love for the triangular numbers.
6
15
28 etc
They're great!

 

[Electric_Andy]

Easier in what way? It’s not like you’re doing complicated maths, just selecting the right socket head for the bolt.

if you're unsure of the size and want to measure it, I'd say 10mm is easier to measure than 15/19ths or whatever. But I see what you mean, you're just selecting sockets. For me, if I find that 12mm is too big, I know immediately to reach for an 11mm. But if a 17/19ths was too big, I wouldn't know whether to look for a 16/19ths, a half inch, or an 15th of a hundredweight

 

[Oldhippy]

if you're unsure of the size and want to measure it, I'd say 10mm is easier to measure than 15/19ths or whatever. But I see what you mean, you're just selecting sockets. For me, if I find that 12mm is too big, I know immediately to reach for an 11mm. But if a 17/19ths was too big, I wouldn't know whether to look for a 16/19ths, a half inch, or an 15th of a hundredweight

A certain generation of people will disagree. I know mentally how long 6ft is but in decimal it doesn't mean much.

 

[Andy in Germany]

A certain generation of people will disagree. I know mentally how long 6ft is but in decimal it doesn't mean much.

I happen to know that 2 m is about 6' because I grew up in the "Mixed" era. I was very glad I could do all my carpentry calculations in metric though; numbers are hard enough without messing about with fractions.

 

[Oldhippy]

I happen to know that 2 m is about 6' because I grew up in the "Mixed" era. I was very glad I could do all my carpentry calculations in metric though; numbers are hard enough without messing about with fractions.

As did I but always related to feet and inches better.