Friday 20 May 2011

maths of the day No.6

One, two, skip a few, 99, 100

You may have thought that this was one of the greatest things from your childhood, but for some amazonian tribes even this maths is too complex. Their numbers are 1,2 and many. Even the tribe members that have been taught numbers in other languages may be able to count but they still can't do simple addition.

This isn't as weird as it sounds because it turns out that the natural brain doesn't have a very good capacity for western mathematics and actually works in terms of ratios. More fruit on that tree, less sabre tooth tigers behind than in front etc.

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