4 ms·

one,two,three,four,five,six,seven,eight,nine,ten http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=one%2Ctwo%2Cthree%2Cfour%2Cfive%2Csix%2Cseven%2Ceight%2Cnine%2Cten&

by msbmsb 16y ago

one,two,three,four,five,six,seven,eight,nine,ten http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=one%2Ctwo%2Cthree%2Cfour%2Cfive%2Csix%2Cseven%2Ceight%2Cnine%2Cten&year_start=1900&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=0 http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=one%2Ctwo%2Cthree... In order, except "ten" shows up between "six" and "seven".

igravious 16y ago
That's interesting, isn't it? I think this proportionality is related to a quirk of human perception. If you are shown briefly a set of objects the average person is able (at a glance) to quickly count those objects for a low value whose threshold is around six or seven. Thus when the number goes any higher the individual will respond that there were "less than ten" or "fewer than ten". Of course because humans have standardized on base 10 as there counting system then ten will get bumped up in any distribution but to predict that it would occur between six and seven (the number of man and divinity no less) would be difficult. What about 11 to 20? Hmm, it (roughly) goes: twenty, twelve, fifteen, eleven, eighteen, fourteen, sixteen, thirteen, seventeen, nineteen! Just what I expected :)
ivancho 16y ago
perfect example of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benford%27s_law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benford%27s_law
- msbmsb 16y ago
  Exactly
msbmsb 16y ago
Also interesting, the 1700s were not kind to the numbers "six" or "seven": http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=one%2Ctwo%2Cthree%2Cfour%2Cfive%2Csix%2Cseven%2Ceight%2Cnine%2Cten&year_start=1700&year_end=1820&corpus=0&smoothing=3 http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=one%2Ctwo%2Cthree...
dwiel 16y ago
1,2,3,one,two,three http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=1%2C2%2C3%2Cone%2Ctwo%2Cthree&year_start=1900&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=0 http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=1%2C2%2C3%2Cone%2... for a short period of time in the 80s and 90s, 1 was more popular than one, where from the 1700s through 1950s, 1 was half as popular as one ...

by msbmsb 16y ago

igravious 16y ago

That's interesting, isn't it? I think this proportionality is related to a quirk of human perception. If you are shown briefly a set of objects the average person is able (at a glance) to quickly count those objects for a low value whose threshold is around six or seven. Thus when the number goes any higher the individual will respond that there were "less than ten" or "fewer than ten". Of course because humans have standardized on base 10 as there counting system then ten will get bumped up in any distribution but to predict that it would occur between six and seven (the number of man and divinity no less) would be difficult. What about 11 to 20? Hmm, it (roughly) goes: twenty, twelve, fifteen, eleven, eighteen, fourteen, sixteen, thirteen, seventeen, nineteen! Just what I expected :)

ivancho 16y ago

perfect example of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benford%27s_law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benford%27s_law

msbmsb 16y ago
Exactly

msbmsb 16y ago

Also interesting, the 1700s were not kind to the numbers "six" or "seven": http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=one%2Ctwo%2Cthree%2Cfour%2Cfive%2Csix%2Cseven%2Ceight%2Cnine%2Cten&year_start=1700&year_end=1820&corpus=0&smoothing=3 http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=one%2Ctwo%2Cthree...

dwiel 16y ago

1,2,3,one,two,three http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=1%2C2%2C3%2Cone%2Ctwo%2Cthree&year_start=1900&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=0 http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=1%2C2%2C3%2Cone%2... for a short period of time in the 80s and 90s, 1 was more popular than one, where from the 1700s through 1950s, 1 was half as popular as one ...