Re^4: 1. Go compare! Guardian's algortithm riddle and mathematical proof

"less" is analog, "fewer" is digital.

The problem is that many people — I mean sophomoric pedants — believe many quantities are discrete when in fact they are continuous. Take age, for example. A pedant might insist that "Bobby is less than ten years old" is incorrect, and must be phrased as "Bobby is fewer than ten years old". But a person's age is not really an integer number of years, it is a float amount of time. :-) "Ten years old" is a watermark; if one has not yet reached that watermark in age, then they are less than that. You see people making this ridiculous "correction" all the time.

Comment on Re^4: 1. Go compare! Guardian's algortithm riddle and mathematical proof

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Re^5: 1. Go compare! Guardian's algortithm riddle and mathematical proof by hippo (Archbishop) on Jun 08, 2025 at 22:01 UTC
Bobby is younger than 10 years old. Problem solved! Update: Unless of course he is Little Bobby Tables in which case your problems are only just beginning. 🦛	[reply]
Re^5: 1. Go compare! Guardian's algortithm riddle and mathematical proof by GrandFather (Saint) on Jun 08, 2025 at 22:27 UTC
In conventional US/UK/Colony (I'm not qualified to assert any wider than this) usage age in years is integer down to about 5 years. Below that at some point age in years becomes fractional or is given in months down to about 8 months. Below that at some point ... As a general thing I am irked by the misapplication of less/fewer, but in the case of age I'd generally treat years as integer. Oh, and age is not float because there are ages that can't be represented by floats, or doubles for that matter, or any any way at all without invoking unbounded numbers. Optimising for fewest key strokes only makes sense transmitting to Pluto or beyond	[reply]
Re^6: 1. Go compare! Guardian's algortithm riddle and mathematical proof by jdporter (Paladin) on Jun 09, 2025 at 14:33 UTC
Well, it's still stupid, no matter how conventional. Time is continuous; therefore age is continuous. age is not float because . . . Obviously. Did you miss the smiley?	[reply]
Re^5: 1. Go compare! Guardian's algortithm riddle and mathematical proof by jdporter (Paladin) on Jun 17, 2025 at 16:05 UTC
Just found one in the wild: the bodies that make up [the Oort Cloud] are small — fewer than 60 miles (97 kilometers) in diameter It should be very obvious why this is wrong: the diameter of an object is not a discrete (integer) number of miles/km — stupid English conventions notwithstanding. (And don't get me started on the conversion of 60 miles to 97 km.) Today's latest and greatest software contains tomorrow's zero day exploits.	[reply]