RANDOM MUSINGS FROM THE TOP OF THE HILL

5/24/2011

MIND GAMES

Did you realize we don't always read the words we see.  Some things we are so used to that we make mental corrections as we go.  One example of this is time.  In our number system we have two types of numbers; cardinal and ordinal.  Cardinal numbers are one, two, three, etc.  Ordinal numbers are first, second, third, etc. Cardinal numbers are written 1,2,3,etc.  Ordinals can be written 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.  The human brain is smart enough to decide which is which even when they are not written that way.  Take for instance the sentence "My birthday is June 22, 1956."  What is written is twenty-two but what your mind said was twenty-second.  As a result it becomes unnecessary and totally superfluous to write June 22nd, 1956...nobody does that.  The human mind is a marvelous thing - JD.
:-)

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