This is probably one of the coolest party tricks ever – not only is it super easy, but it makes you look smart and mysterious. Think the Austin Powers of MENSA. Unfortunately, it only works if you are surrounded by people from different geographical areas.
Once upon a time, there was a number… then there was another… it was the same number, it meant the same thing, but it looked different. We assume that numbers are universal and that they mean the same thing, regardless of where you are. Not quite.
In the blog post “why time is a dozen’, we talked about Sumerian numerals and how the Sumerians used a combination of decimal and sexagesimal systems. Over the years, different civilizations wrote numerals differently. We are all familiar with Egyptian numerals – we may not be able to read them, but we can probably identify them on sight.
We know that numerals in Mandarin, Japanese, Bengali, Hebrew, etc. look different to what we use in the Western world, but most of us don’t know where ‘our’ numbers come from. Our schooling systems devote more time to the when and where of Roman numerals than to Arabic numerals. Yep, the ten digits as we know them – 0123456789 – were developed in Maghreb in North Africa or India – the debate on that is still raging! Today we commonly refer to them as the Western Arabic numerals and they are widely in use in the Western World.
Even when the numbers look the same, the way we write down numbers is a clear indication of where we are coming from – so come on Sherlock, let’s have a look at how we solve the puzzle – and of course, impress our party friend. Pick your favourite big number – I am going to go with 9876543219876 and 5 under the decimal part.
The first clue would be what is used to separate the decimal. In South Africa and Europe, we will use a comma as a decimal marker, so if we have to write down the amount, it will look like this: 9876543219876,50. However, this is not true for all countries. It is not even true for all English speaking countries. If I write the amount as 9876543219876.50, you can narrow down my origin to Australia, New Zealand or the United Kingdom. Sounds easy – the first hurdle is overcome… but it wouldn’t be much of an investigation if it was that easy, right? Sometimes, countries use both as our Canadian friends have done – they use both the comma and the point. You have already determined the logic, so just keep following it. French Canadians stick with the French way of writing, i.e. they use the comma, whilst their British counterparts are using the point.
I wish all arguments could be settled as easily as the comma-point argument. The International System of Units (SI) – Bureau International des Poids et Mesures – must be the most adult organization out there because they simply declared that ‘the decimal marker chosen should be that which is customary in the context concerned’.
The secret to a good party trick is to build tension. You have now delivered – hopefully with some flair – the first wider geographical area. We do, however, have more secrets up our sleeves. Let’s go back to our number now without the decimal: 9876543219876. This is where the magic starts because by simply looking at the number, we can start narrowing the country where the person is coming from:
- 9 876 543 219,876 – you could be in Denmark, Finland or France. Canada also shows us that they have adulting down pat in certain areas, because they use this in both French and English regions.
- 9 876 543.219,876 – that something as small as a period or a point can give so much away – hello Germany!
- 9.876.543.219,876 – the Italians believe that if one period or point is good, two must be even better – so three must be outstanding! They have taken the Norwegians and the Spanish with them on this journey of many points.
- 9,876,543,219,876 – the superpowers of the UK and the USA went ‘away with you all, we already have a point on the decimal, so now we will use a comma’
Although this is a neat party trick, think of the endless applications. This is one clue, Abby Sciuto, from NCIS will use to analyze the notes from terrorists to determine their origin, Dr Spencer Reid from Criminal Minds is helping out his foreign task force by analyzing a ransom note and the advisors to people like Marc Andreessen and other angel investors need to know this to ensure that they are backing the right product at the right investment level.
The world is so interlinked that learning about one thing, tells us so much of other things. Nothing happens in a vacuum and we need to train our brains to connect multiple points of knowledge. This is a learned ability. Remember when you had your first child? You had every developmental stage mapped out in the finest details – toddlers should be able to follow 2 or 3 step directions at 24 months- take your doll and your blanket and put it in your room. There is a reason you didn’t start with that instruction when your sprog was 12 months old. You had to start with one instruction and build it up from there. Ages and stages also deal with the order of events (go to the bathroom, put your clothes in the hamper and get into the bath – this must happen in a specific order) and eventually causality (we have to take an umbrella because it is raining outside and we will get wet if we don’t). All these things are learned abilities. We teach our brain complexities by doing complex things in our heads. The same way you were deliberate as a parent to teach your child all of the above, the same way you need to be deliberate with yourself to train your brain to deal with new levels of complexity.
You’ve got this Doctor Detective. You already live in a world that is interlinked with other worlds. Follow the trail…
Leave a Reply