Eli5 why it is difficult for humans to read a lot of 0s, like 2000000, but not words?
In: 0
Imagine there’s an English word falalalalalalalala. How many times do you say ‘la?’ I’d guess most people would originally either just guess, or walk through it with their finger slowly, like you would reading a number. The nice thing about words, though, it’s unlikely for there to be both a falalalalalalalala and a falalalalalalala, so after a while, you could find a rhythm that helps you subconsciously count how many syllables. You don’t even read the whole word anymore, you just see the general layout and know what it is.
I don’t think words are inherently any easier to read, it’s just that the longer they get, the less likely there are to be two nearly identical ones with drastically different meanings. The exception to that rule is [organic chemistry ](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jean-Luc-Cacas/publication/224895876/figure/fig3/AS:393805137235968@1470901869045/Chemical-structures-of-Long-Chain-Bases-found-in-plants-Chemical-names-and-trivial-names.png) (not that those are all nearly identical, but they’re long and difficult to know how many syllables you’re supposed to pronounce. And very minor changes to organic chemistry molecules may not change nomenclature that much, but can have drastic effects on how they interact with the body. There are some molecules where just mirroring the bonds is deadly to humans)
Numbers, unfortunately, come in all shapes and sizes. It’s no more likely for 200000000 to show up than 20000000. And one is ten times more than the other. It’s the same ratio as mistaking 10 and 100. Commas help separate them out. 200,000,000 is definitely more than 20,000,000. However, that only helps for so much. Once you get high enough, you have to go back to counting. For instance, is 6,000,000,000,000,000,000 equal to 6 quadrillion, quintillion, or sextillion?
Luckily, numbers that high are very very rare for most people. But that many carbon atoms would be 0.00000001 grams. is that 1 ten-millionth, hundred-millionth, or billionth? Also luckily, at these scales, we invented something much easier for humans to understand which is scientific notation (and the metric system helps too). That statement above basically says 6*10¹⁸ is 10^(-6) moles.
Latest Answers