Comment on What do you think is the largest number a human can actually grasp / truly comprehend?

jerkface@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

Visualization and symbolics are not the only way we comprehend numbers. My mind has the ability to recognize astonishingly broad temporal intervals with remarkable accuracy. I can express the interval using numbers. Does that mean I am able to fully comprehend a number like in “90 minutes?”

I am able to remember sets of things, and distinguish all of the members of that set, up to very large numbers. It would not be unusual for a teacher to be able to call to mind every one of a couple hundred students currently attending their school. If I can manage a set of a particular size in my mind (whether or not I can visualize all the members of that set simultaneously) do I not have some comprehension of that number?

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