Another post from betting market company Polymarket read: “BREAKING: Zohran Mamdani to require all New York elementary school students to learn Arabic numerals.” The post has almost 14 million views.

    • Infinite@lemmy.zip
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      2 hours ago

      Naw, my 6th grade was on the ground floor and so is my house. I read at the same level.

  • BigBenis@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    Next he’ll be forcing us all to drink dihydrogen oxide, a chemical that’s known to be fatal to humans under certain conditions!

      • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        I’m sorry but as a technicality none of the power used in a steam engine is derived from the dihydrogen monoxide. The chemical compound is used as a medium to turn thermal energy into kinetic energy. The thermal energy, likewise, is usually obtained from another source such as chemical, nuclear, tidal, or photovoltaic.

    • HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org
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      5 hours ago

      Especially that diabolic number “zero”. It is a pure Arab invention. The Romans did fine without it. Then the Arabs introduced zero and we know what happened with the Roman Empire. Now, zeros can be found everywhere - they can even hide in computers. America should really exzerminate these zeros befote it is too late!!

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    In Germany, we have a right-wing party en par with the US Republicans: The AfD. Just as Nazi, just as nuts.

    Some time ago, someone riled them up with the “Did you know they teach Arabic numerals in school now?”, and quite a few of them blew a lid…

    • Adulated_Aspersion@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      Well, the dihydrogen monoxide that is in your Zuchini is literally an industrial solvent!

      Have you seen what dihydrogen monoxide does to pure, strong iron?!? It corrodes iron unbelievably fast! And people just…consume it in most of their “healthy” foods!

      Wake up, sheeple! Stop drinking dihydrogen monoxide!

      ~/s - this message brought to you by Brawndo, the thirst mutilator~

  • Aelis@lemmy.ml
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    10 hours ago

    No, ain’t no way, how can this be NOT the onion ?! Come on ! 😂

    • quick_snail@feddit.nl
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      12 hours ago

      I dont understand this. When I was in Palestine, they definitely used different numerals.

      Like, I guess they invented base 10? Or math? But the characters they use for numbers are absolutely different

      • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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        9 hours ago

        Basically, what we call “Arabic Numerals”, including the number 0, have their origin in India. Europe got them from Arabic scholars, and therefore called them “Arabic”.

        The main factor is the decimal system of writing and having the concept of a zero in contrast to the odd, additive and subtractive writing of the Roman numerals, which didn’t even know a 0, and made multiplication a pain and division nearly impossible.

        What glyph is actually used for a one, be it a 1 or a ١, is absolutely secondary.

        • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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          4 hours ago

          I want to correct something. They knew what nothing meant. They just didn’t conceptualize the absence of things as a number. And honestly, it’s a bit weird, but it is useful. You can’t have 0 apples, but the concept is useful for math.

      • neclimdul@lemmy.world
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        11 hours ago

        I think your confusion is the other side of what the article was discussing.

        The problem is, there have been a lot of number systems in the past. The one we currently use is based on the Arabic system. In common usage you would simply call them numbers. But in a technical sense, to distinguish from other numbering systems past and present, they’re also called Arabic Numerals because that’s their origin.

        Clearly this ignores the fact Arabic is still around and using real Arabic numbers and that is both confusing and maybe problematic. But I think the technical reason it sticks around is to acknowledge their source and have a more specific term when there is a need

        • SlurpingPus@lemmy.world
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          9 hours ago

          called Arabic Numerals because that’s their origin

          While the origin of Arabic numerals is actually Indian.

        • quick_snail@feddit.nl
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          9 hours ago

          Arabic Numerals is ambiguous. We don’t use eastern Arabic numerals in our schools.

        • quick_snail@feddit.nl
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          11 hours ago

          Ok, well, this article is trying to call people dumb for not understanding a concept that is incredibly confusing to everyone

          • XeroxCool@lemmy.world
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            8 hours ago

            They’re not calling people dumb for not knowing, they’re calling them dumb for not investigating. If you hear a wild claim, you should investigate. This shouldn’t still work because most of us here know it’s been a running joke for at least 20 years in the US with continuous anti-Muslim and anti-middle-easter/Arabic sentiment and bills post 9/11.

            It shouldn’t be incredibly confusing, either. It’s fine to not automatically know that Amerocan/English refers to “western Arabic numerals” as simply “Arabic numerals” in shorthand. I didn’t. That’s why I briefly researched it when you said you had a different set of numerals in a region. Since I don’t know exactly what to look for to validate my own searches, I genuinely asked you if what you learned matched what was in the Wikipedia page. I have no direct experience.

            People use shorthand all the time. It makes things confusing. I didn’t know a “convection oven” was actually a “forced convection oven” until this year. In my head, it wasn’t something I ever questioned because all my ovens have had the primary heater at the bottom, meaning convection would carry hot air upwards. Turns out, FCOs have a fan at the top to force better circulation. Surprise, this revolution of air fryers? They’re just countertop [forced] convection ovens. Similarly, I have a gripe with people customizing cars with “coilovers”. The majority of cars already have coil[spring]-over-[shock]s, but what they mean is “adjustable coilovers”. It’s a carryover from when cars did NOT have the various coilover designs as standard. Shocks outside coil springs, leaf springs, torsion springs, etc.

          • Lemminary@lemmy.world
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            10 hours ago

            incredibly confusing to everyone

            Is it? I think your confusion may come from living or studying abroad, which is understandable. But only the ignorant ones who passed school while asleep on this side of the world would be confused. Everyone is told that these are Arabic numerals as opposed to Roman numerals very early on.