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many or much (media.piefed.social)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/mathmemes@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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crosspost of https://piefed.social/c/linguistics_humor/p/1691997/many-or-much

Comic strip, 4 panels. Snail asks another snail "English is difficult, when do we use «many» and when do we use «much»?". Another one answears "«Many» is for nouns that are countable, like apples. «Much» is for nouns that are not countable, like water.". The first snail asks again "So we should say «Many rational numbers», and «Much real numbers»?"
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[–] 23 points 9 months ago (8 children)

Good one. Recently saw a Mastodon post saying "I have much Micro-USB cables" with the reasoning that it's an uncountable amount :)

I can't resist the urge to analyze why this claim isn't correct though. The mansplainer in me is taking over!

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  • [–] 11 points 9 months ago (7 children)

    So here's my attempt:

    "Many" is for things that can be listed, even if a list can never be complete (uncountably infinite). Real numbers can be listed, for example: 1, 2, 3, 0.4, 9/7, π, √2. Therefore there are many real numbers.

    "Much" is for things which can never be listed or for which a list would never hold any meaning, like a volume of water. It is meaningless to make a list of molecules in a certain container of water. In everyday life you can reasonably say that for all intents and purposes any amount of water is infinitely divisible, despite it technically not being true. Therefore there is much water.

    Put another way: "many" can replace an integer value, but "much" can replace a real value of some unit of measurement.

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  • [–] 9 points 9 months ago*

    You can have 1 number {1} and two numbers {e, π} but not 1.5 numbers. Therefore all numbers are many not much.
    It's about having an indivisible base quantity or not.

    I can't have 1 water, I have to agree on a reference amount first and get 1 liter, glas, bottle, or bald eagle worth of water.

    Real numbers can't be listed, they are uncountably infinite. And water can be listed. I'd like to order 2 glasses, one bottle, 1.5l, and 231 imperial cubic inches of water please. You could even convert that into integers using molecular counts, but the base unit 1 molecule of water is useless when talking about the concept of water, so in effect and historic knowledge there is none.

    You can have many numbers each of much amount.

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  • [–] 5 points 9 months ago (5 children)

    I have many gravels

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  • [–] 7 points 9 months ago (4 children)

    Good sir I'd like one of your gravels please

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago (3 children)

    🚫,🏳️‍⚧️😭

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