4 ms·

Title should read "At least" A planet as massive as Jupiter will have captured lots(1) of objects. 1. Terry Pratchett Troll counting system.

• Jaruzel 8y ago
  I'm gonna paste this in because pterry was a god (small G), and there should be no point ever where a reference to him shall go unnoticed. ‘Everyone knows trolls can’t even count up to four!’ (In fact, trolls traditionally count like this: one, two, three, many, and people assume this means they can have no grasp of higher numbers. They don’t realise that many can BE a number. As in: one, two, three, many, many-one, many-two, many-three, many many, many-many-one, many-many-two, many-many-three, many many many, many-many-many-one, many-many-many-two, many-many-three, LOTS.)
  • fabricexpert 8y ago
    Presumably because trolls only have 4 fingers on each hand?
    • rainbowmverse 8y ago
      There are finger-based counting systems with more than one number per finger. Our average of 10 fingers can handle a lot more than 10 numbers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger-counting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger-counting
      • tejtm 8y ago
        And less than a digit per err digit (thumbs included) If I recall there was a Native American base 8 counting system which utilized the space between fingers holding sticks or strings as place holders. Made for a handy octal abacus.
  • dzdt 8y ago
    I take "lots" in that quote to be 100 (base 4) or 16 (base 10). Then Jupiters 79 moons would be counted as "oodles-many-many-many-three" -- assuming "oodles" as 1000 (base 4) or 64 (base 10).