And I've been doing this for years: If I "accidentally" get into the 10 items or fewer line with 11 items, I just tell myself it's a "baker's 10." And, of course, 12 items is a "baker's baker's 10," as we have no other name for 12.

[–] Warl0k3@lemmy.world 5 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

Reinventing church numerals as a rationalisation for grocery checkout hijinks - I absolutely love this.

[–] schuelermine@leminal.space 1 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Isn't this Peano numerals? Church numerals would be if a baker's four doubled two was sixty-four.

(That being (λf. λx. f (f (f (f (f x))))) (λn. λf. λx. n f (n f x)) (λf. λx. f (f x)))

[–] Warl0k3@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

Would they not be equivalent systems for this purpose? Both use the successor function as a unary representation of the natural numbers.

[–] BillyClark@piefed.social 2 points 20 hours ago

I guess if I say that 1 is baker's 0, and 2 is baker's baker's 0, then I've invented the baker's unary base.