How high can you count?
 

Psychological experiment. How high can you count without making a mistake or losing count?

1. What is your guess?
2. Now do the count, how high did you get?
3. Do you consider yourself an optimist or pessimist?
4. Do you consider yourself mathematical or non-mathematical?

I did this on myself, but before telling you what I got I'd like to get feedback on what you got.

to infinity and beyond.

a non-mathematical optimist.

Everyone needs a hobby I guess... http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/smile.png

How long did this feat take you and in what place/circumstance? I'd hate to be just shy of a million and the phone rings...

Guess that makes me a pessimist?

1. 100 based on the fact I doubt I've ever counted beyond that previously.
2. 203 no mistakes, just lost motivation.
3. pessimist
4. Mathematical

How long have we got? This could take years. Do we have to use SI expansions for powers of 10?

I just got to quite a large number. The OP doesn't prevent me from counting in Trillions does it?

If it does, do I have to use decimal, or is Octal, pental or binary ok?

If I do have to use decimal and go up by ones then I'll get right on it after I've finished watching the paint dry and my synthetic grass grow.

I got bored at 66. Mathematical pessimist.

I can count to near infinity.
True story.

Till I get bored, fall asleep, get significantly distracted or get beyond a trillion cause I get confused by what comes after that without a guide in front of me.

Do you have to count out loud (use speech), or simply think of the numbers?

This thread reminds me of a Goon's Show sketch where Milligan was reciting "one, one, one, one, one...". When asked what he was doing, he explained he had to count to one hundred, but didn't know how to count past one. Solution was to count to one, one hundred times...

Are we counting in an abstract manner (simply thinking of consecutive numbers), or counting actual objects (grains of sand in a bucket)?

1. Depends on the height of the ladder.
2. I can't be bothered to go drag out the really tall ladder.
3. Bit from column (a) a bit from column (b).
4. Non, that's what happens when you have a mathematical genius for a brother.

> Do I have to use decimal, or is Octal, pental or binary ok?

I'd be very interested in how high you can count in binary. Was wondering about that.

> Do you have to count out loud (use speech), or simply think of the numbers?

I counted out loud, saying the full form "two hundred and seventy four" etc. but I won't penalise you if you want to count silently or just say "two seven four".

I got to 588 and slipped up on 589. I expected to get to between 200 and 300. Mathematical pessimist.

I wanted to see what the probability density function for how high people count is. eg. Could it be an exponential distribution?

You may be interested in conflicting views about the world record for counting:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...2085438AAeNWaT

Yep, given time, I could probably count to near infinity... qne trillion and one, one trillion and two, one trillion and three

In principle I think I could get to a seven or eight figure number before loosing track and making a mistake.

In practice I think I would get to 100 before getting bored or distracted.

I actually got to 100 before getting distracted.

Realist.

Sort of mathematical.

There are more stars in the sky then there are grains of sands on all the beaches in the world.

Oh dear .... what hope is there for the world.
It's contagious. http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/frown.png

Ref?