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Speaking of Numbers...


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How many numbers with more than one digit can be pronounced with one syllable?

13 Comments

gaw said:

Twelve... I mean one... You know, twelve, not one. But it is one, right? I mean twelve?

Two, I think. Ten and twelve.

Taliver said:

How about all the names numbers as well? Pi, e, c (which you could say is an abbreviation and not count). I'm sure there are many other physical constants that are pronouncable as one syllable that have _many_ more than one digit.

Taliver said:

And one more thing. I'll guess you mean in English, but do you count slang? "Zilch" or "Naught". Or colloquial "Score", or measurement "Gross"?

Taliver hit on the twist I was taking, those are most of the ones I was thinking of.

Pi and e must certainly count, because those are the only names for those numbers (as well as any other transcendental numbers that have names.

"Score" and "gross" were ones I considered, and I think they should count too. I didn't think of "zilch", but we should count it -- why naught?

Then there's all sorts of physical constants with names, but I'm not sure if those should be counted or not. I'd tend to say yes, but I could be persuaded otherwise if anyone cared.

Taliver said:

One thing I did realize after I poseted, however -- Zilch and Naught are one digit numbers.

(And some people call "e" the "Natural Base")

TM Lutas said:

Then again, there's a tenth (1/10)

Taliver: Oh yeah, that's why I didn't think of zilch myself! Absolutely.

TML: I didn't think of fractions! All the one-digit numbers make single syllable fractions. Excellent.

Petra said:

But isn't 1/10 really pronounced one-tenth? And likewise all other fractions?

Petra said:

Oops! Maybe half (1/2) would work.

Kurt said:

How about a "mole"? That might be the largest one-syllable number.

LT said:

Kurt, you took my answer!

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