Reply to: Seventeen hundred or one thousand seven hundred

[Paddy]

Why did we have 2x12 hours in a day, instead of a 24 hour clock in the first place.

Was it because people couldn't count as high as 24

The time was based on sun dials. 1 to 12 hours in daylight, mid-day was 6 hours. The other 12 hours were added later.

[dang65]

Interesting. And I imagine for practical reasons and for trade purposes they found 12 more convenient than 10 because it's got 4 factors and is divisible by pesky 3. That is, it was handy to count to twelve before you start with new rules for higher numbers.

Sounds like a bloody good theory to me.

[TimberWolf]

There's an interesting etymology behind that.

Eleven comes from the old German ainlif meaning "one left", and twelve is twalif, "two left". i.e. You can only count up to ten on your fingers, so take the ten away and you have one left, or two left.

Presumably it got a bit too much to work out after that, so they switched to the teen system. Shame though, as threlve, fourven and filve would have been delicious words.

Interesting. And I imagine for practical reasons and for trade purposes they found 12 more convenient than 10 because it's got 4 factors and is divisible by pesky 3. That is, it was handy to count to twelve before you start with new rules for higher numbers.

[Churchill]

There's an interesting etymology behind that.

Eleven comes from the old German ainlif meaning "one left", and twelve is twalif, "two left". i.e. You can only count up to ten on your fingers, so take the ten away and you have one left, or two left.

Presumably it got a bit too much to work out after that, so they switched to the teen system. Shame though, as threlve, fourven and filve would have been delicious words.

8 fingers, 2 thumbs -> 1024 combinations. Those from Naarfark have up to 4096.

[dang65]

There's no oneteen and twoteen either

There's an interesting etymology behind that.

Eleven comes from the old German ainlif meaning "one left", and twelve is twalif, "two left". i.e. You can only count up to ten on your fingers, so take the ten away and you have one left, or two left.

Presumably it got a bit too much to work out after that, so they switched to the teen system. Shame though, as threlve, fourven and filve would have been delicious words.

[doodab]

You could also speak of "one point seven kilo wotsits" although this may not be appropriate for many things.

[Churchill]

Same, I think it is an Americanism as I never knew my father to use it as a, now retired, accountant.

I'm sure you could've shoe-horned another comma into that sentence.

[meridian]

I learned in French class last year that the French say the whole number, e.g. mille neuf-cent quatre-vingt dix-neuf (one thousand nine-hundred and ninety-nine), but in German I was told to say neunzehnhundertneunundneunzig (nineteen hundred ninety-nine). But that may just be years.

Is this one of those things we've adopted a bit from Germanic Anglo Saxon, and a bit from Norman French and ended up with both? Probably.

I thought the Kronenberg beer was seize-cent soixante quatre?

(sixteen hundred and sixty four)

[Spacecadet]

Fair comments re the teen numbers being a bit odd. I wonder why that came about?

depends on the context and who i'm speaking to.

Same here although generally speaking seventeen hundred for dates and one thousand seven hundred for almost all other uses would probably be right in my head.

I should probably qualify the who and when

Meeting with the upper management about the new stock level report:
"This report shows that you have one thousand and seven hundred widgets in stock"

Meeting with the (physical not data) warehouse manager and his minion:
"This report shows you have seventeen-hundred widgets in stock"

Different audiences, different language. Upper management wouldn't get the dyslexic pimp joke either.

[Paddy]

Isn't that 1605?

yes

[TimberWolf]

Anyway, aside from dates, I find the hundred formulation annoying and immediately convert it to something meaningful when I hear it used. Not uncommonly the hundreds formulation will be accompanied with 'feet', ffs, which will mean a double conversion.

[VectraMan]

I learned in French class last year that the French say the whole number, e.g. mille neuf-cent quatre-vingt dix-neuf (one thousand nine-hundred and ninety-nine), but in German I was told to say neunzehnhundertneunundneunzig (nineteen hundred ninety-nine). But that may just be years.

Is this one of those things we've adopted a bit from Germanic Anglo Saxon, and a bit from Norman French and ended up with both? Probably.

[centurian]

Why did we have 2x12 hours in a day, instead of a 24 hour clock in the first place.

Was it because people couldn't count as high as 24

[RichardCranium]

What way would you say 1700?

In the year seventeen hundred, a ship cost one thousand, seven hundred pounds, travelled seventeen hundred miles and carried seventeen hundred barrels.

What way would you say 1700?

5 O' Clock innit governor?

I was in the council office this afternoon. A woman (member of staff) at the counter called out "Peter! What time's 19?"

Response: "Seven".

[scooterscot]

What way would you say 1700?

5 O' Clock innit governor?