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We use verbal numbers and we use numerals - why do we need both? Why do we have the ones we have? What happened to Roman numerals? And what's loserish about the fiftieth Super Bowl?
Stephen Chrisomalis, professor of anthropology and linguistics and author of the book Reckonings: Numerals, Cognition and History, returns to the Allusionist to explain our current numbers, and why we shouldn't get too arrogant about them.
EXTRA MATERIALS:
One of the most popular episodes of the show is Stephen’s previous appearance, talking about indefinite hyperbolic numerals like zillion and jillion. Listen to it down your podfeed or at theallusionist.org/zillions.
Get to grips with Greek acrophonic numerals.
Why they went for Super Bowl 50 rather than Super Bowl Loser.
It’ll take me a while to be able to count in Danish.
Hear Stephen on a recent episode of The Endless Knot podcast.
YOUR RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
gastrolith
gastrolith, noun: 1. Zoology: a small stone swallowed by a bird, reptile or fish to aid digestion in the gizzard. 2. Medicine: a hard concretion in the stomach.
CREDITS:
Stephen Chrisomalis is professor of anthropology and linguistics at Wayne State university in Detroit, Michigan. Read all about numbering systems in his book Reckonings: Numerals, Cognition and History and find him on Twitter @schrisomalis.
This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman.
The original Allusionist music is by Martin Austwick. Download his songs at palebirdmusic.com, listen to his podcasts Song By Song and Neutrino Watch, and hear more of his composition on the science podcast for kids Maddie’s Sound Explorers.
Find the show at twitter.com/allusionistshow, facebook.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/helenzaltzman and instagram.com/allusionistshow.
The Allusionist is an independent podcast. If you’re able and inclined to support the show, head over to patreon.com/allusionist.
