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many or much (media.piefed.social)
submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by Kierunkowy74@piefed.social to c/mathmemes
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crosspost of https://piefed.social/c/linguistics_humor/p/1691997/many-or-much

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[-] NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 4 months ago

So here's my attempt:

"Many" is for things that can be listed, even if a list can never be complete (uncountably infinite). Real numbers can be listed, for example: 1, 2, 3, 0.4, 9/7, π, √2. Therefore there are many real numbers.

"Much" is for things which can never be listed or for which a list would never hold any meaning, like a volume of water. It is meaningless to make a list of molecules in a certain container of water. In everyday life you can reasonably say that for all intents and purposes any amount of water is infinitely divisible, despite it technically not being true. Therefore there is much water.

Put another way: "many" can replace an integer value, but "much" can replace a real value of some unit of measurement.

[-] Redjard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

You can have 1 number {1} and two numbers {e, π} but not 1.5 numbers. Therefore all numbers are many not much.
It's about having an indivisible base quantity or not.

I can't have 1 water, I have to agree on a reference amount first and get 1 liter, glas, bottle, or bald eagle worth of water.

Real numbers can't be listed, they are uncountably infinite. And water can be listed. I'd like to order 2 glasses, one bottle, 1.5l, and 231 imperial cubic inches of water please. You could even convert that into integers using molecular counts, but the base unit 1 molecule of water is useless when talking about the concept of water, so in effect and historic knowledge there is none.

You can have many numbers each of much amount.

this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2026
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