tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7872819010848426693.post4690464676078329485..comments2024-03-28T02:46:03.227-04:00Comments on The Historical Society: NumbersRandallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16755286304057000048noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7872819010848426693.post-605923721606046892011-03-02T18:00:53.379-05:002011-03-02T18:00:53.379-05:00I like the idea that the difference between zero a...I like the idea that the difference between zero and one is infinity, if the observer knows the person who dies. That is, indeed, a fact that gets lost when we talk about huge numbers. I once had a conversation with a middle-school student about the dead in Lexington. He dismissed the battle, and said that eight dead "wasn't that many." I happened to know the names of many of his classmates. So I said: "Okay. That's Hannah's dad. That's Alex's dad. That's...." I didn't have to get all the way to eight before he was horrified. Once the people were real and not just numbers, eight seemed like an awful lot.hcrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07334093881332383848noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7872819010848426693.post-20762644312995660342011-02-25T12:56:47.587-05:002011-02-25T12:56:47.587-05:00The numbers can be so overwhelming.
I was speakin...The numbers can be so overwhelming.<br /><br />I was speaking to a friend of mine who is working on a PHD in religion and Asian history. He pointed out that the scale is so different in the East. The Taiping Rebellion (1850–64) produced 20 million deaths.Randallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16755286304057000048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7872819010848426693.post-7760748377233433972011-02-25T12:08:07.261-05:002011-02-25T12:08:07.261-05:00You make a good point, Chris, that we need to find...You make a good point, Chris, that we need to find effective ways of helping people understand both the magnitude of these numbers, and the fact that they're all individual people.<br /><br />On the magnitude side, I was looking at US population, trying to understand the revised GLF death toll of 45 million. Turns out, it is roughly equal to the total population of the three largest US States in 1960, NY, CA, and PA. Or the 30 smallest US states and DC.dan allossohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10733670017382794923noreply@blogger.com