The Real (Weird) Way We See Numbers

One reason people might say 99 is closer to 100 than 9 is to 10 is because there is only about 1% difference between 99 and 100 while there is an 11% difference between 9 and 10.

oh hey! I'm getting a whole PhD in this! this is what my research is all about! I'm going to have to use this video to easily explain the first 80 pages of my dissertation to everyone the rest of time.

It is not only numbers. Both lightness and loudness intensities are also perceived in ratios. That is why logarithmic units (e.g. decibels) are used to describe perceived intensities.

Perfectly matches with a commonly shared opinion among physicists when it comes to counting things: 1, 2, 3, many. Many usually means "let a computer deal with it".

My native language (Slovak) has different plural cases depending on the amount of things. Two, three and four "things" have a different word than five or more of the same "thing". Singular, plural 2 to 4, and plural from 5 and more. This messes up many translations of various programs that are programmed with either one singular or one plural word when displaying a result. In all cases so far they are grammatically incorrect. Like "items in basket". English has just two cases: item and items. Slovak (and other Slavic languages) has three cases: item, items up to 4 pieces and items of 5 pieces or more.

One little addition: Romans did actually use both IV and IIII to represent 4. Most sundials and sculptures made during the Roman Empire actually use IIII instead of IV.

IIII is 4 strokes. IV is 3 strokes and you only have to take your pencil/brush off the paper twice. Not only is it easier and saves ink (which mattered when ink was expensive to make) and the glyph is narrower. Plus if anyone has less than good eyesight III and IIII can be difficult to distinguish in the middle of text.

Damn, I just found out I'm a robot

1 fish, 2 fish 3 fish, 1 school.

"what numbers are even.. four" really sounds like something Vsauce would say

4:10 if you’re talking about an image of dots, a computer can do it *quickly*, but writing a program to do this is not trivial.

I once knew a person who was diagnosed with dyscalculia as a child, and he said it was what resulted in his dropping out of school prematurely because it is classified as a learning disability and there was no curriculum to accommodate his needs, but he loved games with numbers like dice and board games, and he was not at all slow at his basic arithmetic. I've also been told a similar condition, dyslexia, is a learning disability, and I've seen someone shut down all their hopes for their future because they were diagnosed with dyslexia, but as a dyslexic myself I know I am not learning disabled because I seem to have zero problem learning things and even seem to learn new things faster and better than everyone around me most times. I just can't perceive printed letters/words/etc. correctly or as easily as other people seem to at a glance. I think the clinical conception of these conditions is wildly missing the mark and incorrectly pegging people as learning disabled and I think it needs to stop until it is studied in greater depth.

Also it's real obvious to me that 99 feels closer to 100 than 9 to 10 because we don't think about absolute difference, we think about relative difference. The relative difference between 99 and 100 is much smaller than 9 and 10.

It's like I always say, there are 3 types of people in the world: those who can count, and those who can't.

At 3m52 I feel the effect is IN PART due to the background color that is closer to the ball color and diffuses into what seems a higher number of dots. I'd have preferred to look at it without the distraction. Fascinating, thanks !

2:42 That doesn’t automatically follow. It is a pattern that could’ve equally emerged, because it’s quicker to write a different symbol than 5 strikes. Not because the brain understands it more quickly.

0:33 My brain counted 7 until you said 8, then I had to go back and double check...

11:15 " babies clearly understand that 1 plus 1 does not equal 1" ... someone tell that to terrence howard

3:30 Strange I had no trouble at all with these large scale dot comparisons and got them all right instantly. I always knew I had a weird brain.

This had me thinking: thats why there's a comma every 3 digits. But then why don't we mark decimals every 3 digits