Everyone knows how illogical English is. Why not add at least a little bit of logic by revamping our number system completely, causing confusion to millions and meaning everyone has to reprint everything with numbers written out in words.

This new number system would in fact be so logical it would be at the cutting edge of 21st-century advances in civilisation and confusion of large numbers of people. Like a sort of new wave of Imperial-Metric conversion.

So, without further ado, meet your new number system:

0-9 stay as they are
10: onety
11: onetyone
12: onetytwo
13: onetythree
14: onetyfour
15: onetyfive
16: onetysix
and so on...
20: twoty, etc..
30: threety..
and so on to ninetynine
100: onetyty...
1000: onetytyty...
and so on, ad infinitum
-- NickTheGreat, Feb 17 2004

My favorite new number? One titi two.
-- yabba do yabba dabba, Feb 17 2004


I remember being baffled by a tv program when I was in early school years. I had turned on half way through and I understood that they were discussing 'tens & units' but they called 35 "three-ty five" and 22 "twoty two". I found this most bizarre and changed channel to watch cartoons.
-- Jinbish, Feb 17 2004


It is not just English that does this, Spanish does the same thing.

10 diez
11 once
12 doce
13 treinte
14 quatorce
15 quince
... 20 venta
21 venta-uno

One problem with this is the large numbers involved in modern life. For example, when talking about the US budget, we would be talking about onetytytytytytytytytytytyty dollars.
-- GenYus, Feb 17 2004


Your childhood is evidently returning to haunt you.
-- NickTheGreat, Feb 17 2004


//I remember being baffled by a tv program when I was in early school years. I had turned on half way through and I understood that they were discussing 'tens & units' but they called 35 "three-ty five" and 22 "twoty two". I found this most bizarre and changed channel to watch cartoons.//

I remember the same program. I'm sure it involved Johnny Ball. Sadly I wasn't allowed to switch over and watch cartoons since I was being forced to watch this in school.
-- hazel, Feb 17 2004


How about harry-three or shirley-six or sammy-one?
-- FarmerJohn, Feb 17 2004


// and so on, ad infinitum //

You mean "ad infinityty"
-- phundug, Feb 17 2004


Anyway, sounds like it would be quicker to just recite the digits. "26" = "two six"; "1000" = "one oh oh oh".
-- phundug, Feb 17 2004


I did at idea for ten hundred once.
-- waugsqueke, Feb 17 2004


It's somewhat interesting to compare the construction of ordinals in English with those in other languages. In English, all the ordinals end in 'th' except those whose last digit is 1, 2, or 3 *and* whose second-to-last digit is not 1. House number twenty-one is the twenty-first house.

If Google's translate function is accurate, German, Italian, and French all form that ordinal by appending the ordinal suffix to the number "21", while Spanish and Portuguese form it by combining "twentieth" and "first". Only English combines the cardinal "twenty" with the ordinal "first".
-- supercat, Feb 18 2004


In onetytytyfourtytyninetytwo, Columbus sailed... oh never mind.
-- st3f, Feb 18 2004


I've read a story by Borges "The analytical language of John Wilkins", I think. It was about an idea of making a logical language.

It goes something like:

"li" would mean alive "an" would mean animal "tw" would mean having two legs.

liantw would mean human.

Its nice - you know what does "halfbakphobia" mean, and i dont even have to explain it to you. why? because it is named in a meaningful way.

And the intresting part is that the children would learn the words intuitively, not bothering with the analysis. Once they are older, they can understand the deeper meaning.

But its too hard to change things.. not too practical
-- Danny_, Feb 18 2004


How you gonna make pi 3?
-- yabba do yabba dabba, Feb 18 2004


Imaginary numbers are good for EVERYTHING. And if PI were three, then what are now integers would be irrational!
-- TerranFury, Feb 18 2004


Transendental.
-- yabba do yabba dabba, Feb 18 2004


//Pi should equal three. and screw imaginary numbers. what are they good for?//

Counting imaginary sheep?

Can we make e 2?
-- GenYus, Feb 18 2004


[NickTheGreat]// and so on, ad infinitum //

[phundug] You mean "ad infinityty"

Actually, more like "and so on, ad infinitytytytytytytytytyty...."
-- berg, Feb 18 2004


I have spent the last 3 (0011) (03) days on a PLC training course. I do not need this!.
If you did away with imaginary numbers then they would have to be re-invented for many applications.
BCD anyone?
-- gnomethang, Feb 18 2004


I think [Nick] is close to a solution, but lost it at the tyty phase. Just have a different ending for different orders of magnatude. For example:
100 = onedo
1000 = onegu
10000 = oneba
12,489 = oneba twogu fourdo eighty nine
instead of:
12,489 = twelve thousand four hundred and eighty nine
-- Worldgineer, Feb 18 2004


[self-mumbling]
Well, what's wrong with just "one two four eight nine"?

Actually, it might be nicer to say it from right to left ("nine eight four two one"), so that the person writing it won't run out of paper...

Well, the problem either way is that the listener doesn't know up front what magnitude the whole number is. So "Twelve Thousand" or "Oneba" are better.

So maybe it's best to first state the total number of digits (perhaps alphabetically), hence "E one two four eight nine". [/self-mumbling]
-- phundug, Feb 19 2004


Maybe it's best to do appreciate what we've already got.
-- yabba do yabba dabba, Feb 19 2004


Let's just write all our numbers and don't bother saying them. We'll all hold up cards and write on them. There's no confusion there.
-- kevinthenerd, Jun 10 2008



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