51–60 of 90 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
On the scale of the universe we're virtually non-existent :)
On the temporal / spatial scale of the universe we are virtually non-existent. On a scale that ranks everything in the universe according to physical / informational complexity & organization, we appear so far to be quite significant.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have an uncomfortable memory of my 1st grade teacher showing this to us and me refusing to go along with what I insisted was an irrational superstition. I didn't understand the context or what her old age meant. Similarly, I was shocked as a kid when I visited the US and saw apartment buildings skip the 13th floor numbering. People are weird.
Similarly, in Japan one pronunciation of 4 is also the word for death, so it's frequently omitted.
The Chinese for buy and sell are 买 and 卖 respectively, the first indicating spending money and the second indicating receiving money.
Granted I don't know what I'm talking about, however I do know Chinese, and I believe these characters far predate the 15th century as do most Chinese characters.
Perhaps someone can elaborate on whether this is a sound theory.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And we're still using '*' for multiplication in our programming languages instead of '×' because using anything other than ASCII for programming is just too hard, or too weird, or whatever.
More likely, it's because we don't have them on our keyboards. Programming languages are usually about reducing friction for programmers, but using the proper multiplication/division symbols would increase that for most people.
regarding keyboard presence, this is one of the things that irks me about Mac keyboards is the absence of the # character. I write little programs and scripts on my mac infrequently enough that I have to look up how to type it every blasted time. That, and how to take screenshots. The "Print Scrn" key on PCs spoils me.
Chinese write it as 加, if you start making the strokes you get a + in the upper left. Consider this is over 6000 years old, probably the origin. My theory. Edit (more evidence): "The plus symbol as an abbreviation for the Latin et, though appearing with the downward stroke not quite vertical, was found in a manuscript dated 1417 (Cajori)." There is an assumption here that it's an abbreviation for the Latin et. But th…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
On the scale of the universe we're virtually non-existent :)
On the temporal / spatial scale of the universe we are virtually non-existent. On a scale that ranks everything in the universe according to physical / informational complexity & organization, we appear so far to be quite significant.
Interesting that there is no mention of ancient China, where money and accounting were invented. The Chinese for buy and sell are 买 and 卖 respectively, the first indicating spending money and the second indicating receiving money. Granted I don't know what I'm talking about, however I do know Chinese, and I believe these characters far predate the 15th century as do most Chinese characters. Perhaps someone can elabor…
Buy in traditional is: 買 Sell is: 賣
Both of these would be closer to the ancient form of expressing these characters. I don't see "+" nor "-" in either of these characters.
[1] http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic453618.files/Cent...
EDIT: In fact, the second symbol on that list, the abbreviation for "and," seems half-way to becoming a +.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I always thought the * was used for multiplication to avoid confusing × with the English alphabet X. We can usually distinguish them while writing equations on paper(I write x in a cursive, for example).
* was used for multiplication because there weren't enough bits to fit every symbol everyone would have liked into ASCII, so compromises were made, including preference for symbols that could be 'overloaded' with multiple meanings in different contexts.