How inevitable is the concept of numbers?

Re:How inevitable is the concept of numbers? by dhosek on Tuesday May 25, 2021 @10:56PM (#27285656)

When I used to teach a class called “Mathematics for Liberal Arts Majors,” the first class began with having students “draw six.¹” I refused to give more explicit instructions. It was fascinating to see the results that came out of this, along with the ideas about numbers that it sparked.

1. I have to confess that the choice of six was not arbitrary.

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Re:How inevitable is the concept of numbers? by lax0 on Tuesday May 25, 2021 @11:22PM (#27285864)

Need you to expound pretty please

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Re:How inevitable is the concept of numbers? by yoyohello13 on Tuesday May 25, 2021 @11:12PM (#27285788)

This is really intriguing. Do you have any examples of what people came up with?

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Re:How inevitable is the concept of numbers? by andai on Tuesday May 25, 2021 @11:16PM (#27285827)

Why six?

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Re:How inevitable is the concept of numbers? by dhosek on Wednesday May 26, 2021 @11:10AM (#27291509)

Mathematically, 6 is the most interesting small number. For example, one might represent it as

  XXXXXX

  XXX
  XXX

  XX
  XX
  XX

  X
  XX
  XXX

or the sides of a cube, hexagons or six-spoked wheels. Occasionally someone would draw a rectangular prism with sides of length 1, 2 and 3. I often had students who might also draw 六 or 陸 or ٦ or ৬ (I had a diverse student body).

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Re:How inevitable is the concept of numbers? by havernator on Tuesday May 25, 2021 @11:28PM (#27285925)

If any students hear the word wrong, you'll get some really funny drawings. (my guess)

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Re:How inevitable is the concept of numbers? by wyqydsyq on Wednesday May 26, 2021 @12:54AM (#27286527)

Or if any of the students are from New Zealand

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Re:How inevitable is the concept of numbers? by Mandatum on Wednesday May 26, 2021 @01:01AM (#27286569)

NZ = Sux

Aus = Sex

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Re:How inevitable is the concept of numbers? by wyqydsyq on Thursday May 27, 2021 @12:46AM (#27299513)

Most Kiwi accents I've heard noticeably pronounced other vowels as "i". e.g. "dick" instead of "deck", "tinnis" instead of "tennis"

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