If you'd walked past my large pink rose bush just now you'd have heard squeaking coming from behind it. It was me trying to pick out the baddies. I was halfway through before I remembered I had my new gardening gloves in my back pocket.
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I've had a painful shoulder/upper arm for several months, the result being that when I am in exercise class, while I can lift my right arm straight up my left arm is only capable of a Nazi salute. This morning I had an extra problem: the feeling that at any moment I might 'break wind'.
I didn't.
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I listened to a fascinating program on the radio today all about maths. (Why do Americans call it math?)
Do you have a favourite number? A worldwide poll that covered all nationalities and ethnicities found that, by a statistically significant number, the world's favourite number is my least liked number!*
The Sumerians were the first to make a representation of numbers, and the words for one and two were the same as for man and woman. Various theories for this go back to the idea of man being created first therefore number one, but also suggested was the numbers represent what differentiates man and woman i.e. man has one and woman has two.
But the idea of numbers having a gender/sex seems to be widespread albeit probably subconscious. People were shown a photo of a very young baby and asked if they thought it was male or female. there were two photos, identical baby but one photo had a string of even numbers next to it and the other had a string of odd numbers. People were told to ignore the reference number and just concentrate on the baby's face.
People who had the even-numbered photo tended to say it was female; people with the odd numbers were more likely to say it was male.
Again people were asked to describe the numbers one and two. The words used to describe number one tended to be those associated with masculinity while the ones used for number two, with stereotypical feminine qualities.
What else? Ten is considered boring while eleven is magical.
It really was a fascinating program!
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| I think of this and full bloom above as my peach melba roses |
15 comments:
I think seven has been considered lucky. It certainly comes up in fairytales and folklore a lot.
Me, I'm eight, all the way. It does all kinds of clever things.
Are you attending to that shoulder issue??
Sounds like you've got a rotator cuff injury in your left shoulder. Have you been to a physiotherapist for treatment? If not, Auntie Debra says "go immediately!"
It sounds like a painful shoulder injury. Physio helped me!
Did the number have to between 1 - 10?
My favourite’ is 12…..it has cropped up/occurred/featured so much in my life I can’t help but claim it.
Shoulders are needed for so many important daily activities so you really should get it looked at
Americans call it math and not maths, because they can only do one?
73 of course.
Your roses are beautiful, I've always said 13 was a good number for me as good things have happened on a 13th, might be my wonky memory!
I like your little fairy - very sweet.
Very pretty flowers and the fairy is so cute.
I've never had a favorite number.
I agree with Chris about your roses being beautiful. The idea of having a favorite number is a non-starter with me. I can make no sense of it (because, as Stu would point out, I am an American and can only do one).
That math program sounds super interesting as I'm a math nerd already. Why do we call it math instead of maths? To me, I think of math as one huge topic that builds from ground level on up. Like how you can't learn calculus without first knowing algebra. But there are lots of "sciences" more independent of one another?
I like 13. Maybe because so many dislike it, and I'm rebellious.
Your shoulder - better get that checked.
Why do Brits call it maths? Actually, I think I can guess bc of all of the different subsets: algebra, trig, geometry etc.
Haha! When I first saw your word “maths” the first thing that popped into my mind was,
“Why do people in Great Britain say “maths” instead of “math””….then you posed the same question in reverse! It had me chuckle.
My thoughts on the matter are that I think that in the U.S. people tend to cluster all forms of math into ONE subject. In the same vein, we tend to say “biology” and not “biologies” even though there are many forms of biology.
I suspect that in G.B. folks may view the forms as DISTINCTLY different enough to warrant the plural “maths”. Do folks in GB potentially use “biologies”? I do not really know.
PipeTobacco
What is the preferred for Canadians? I am suspecting “math” is more common. Is this correct for Canadians?
And, would you know what is preferred in Quebec or for any Canadian who speaks French as their primary?
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