nd-notation. How to count anything in tp?

[janpona120]

[janKipo]

Nice practical point, although the tp world sometimes seems to be without ("free of") telephones and sphygnometers and the like as well.

[janpona120]

tp-math also is compatible with a life in the eco-villages.

li pali e tomo mute, li seli e moku tawa kulupu jan, jan ni li wile e nasin nanpa:

27 iron nails -- palisa kiwen pi nanpa tu nanpa luka tu
52 plates -- poki supa moku pi nanpa luka nanpa tu

pu-math allows to pronounce "27": luka luka luka luka luka tu".
For "52" it sounds lulling: luka..(at all 10 times) ......luka tu... and sle-e-e-ep
nd-math even "152" makes simple: nanpa one nanpa luka nanpa tu

In my opinion, tp has good potential to become an auxlang,
though for more simple situations than Esperanto can describe.

from: http://gen.ecovillage.org/node/5053/

[janKipo]

Well, there is the problem that 'nanpa n' is the ordinal nth, but the use of 'pi' my over come that. Note also that tp does have (unfortunately, usually but not here), 'mute' for 20 and 'ale' for 100. so its basic system is not worse that this revision up to around 500. The complexity of some numerals: 'luka tu wan'. say is an aesthetic problem, as is the constantly repeated 'nanpa'. Still, this is about as good as can be hoped for within the present framework.

[natan]

Am I the only one happy to have/use the basic number/counting system only?

kili ala — no apples
kili wan — one apple
kili tu — two apples
kili mute — many apples
kili ale — countless apples

Why do people have/see a need to express any number (as per those of English) in toki pona?

[janKipo]

I suppose because it sometimes makes a difference. If there are four people at the table you need four meals and many (more than two) may be either too few or too many (so wasteful). Then there is the matter of money, which comes in various denominations, which make a difference when you come to pay for things (or even one thing). And so; you get the idea.
Finally, there is the matter that we use numbers as names and that naming system is set up for having ten digits (at least). You can't -- in any natural way -- do a telephone number in tp.

[Baerdric]

[janKipo]

The reverse order is a clever addition to the tresimal system. Thanks. I would still like to see order of magnitude expressions for the purposes they are used for( so far we have only 'mute') . I don't imagine this or any nondecimal system has a chance of success. And it still doesn't help with digital identifiers like ID numbers.
Btw probably 'nanpa suli', "large" not "numerous"

[Baerdric]

Yeah, it's hard to wrap your head around different bases, much less reversed order of places.

But I used nanpa "mute" to denote that each number was a "multiple" of the previous one and not simply the more common (and still useable) addition of each spoken number.

[janpona120]