No reason

[da]

What would happen if it were a universal constant that things were actually cheaper by the dozen?

Comments

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

What about things that don't come in discrete units like gas?

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking more fundamental than that. Quarks, say.

My first thought was that time could be in a spiral/corkscrew with 12 loops...

Actually, that was the second, the first was that atoms would possibly need 12x the mass they do in our universe compared to other properties.

Yes, I am underslept, why do you ask? ;)

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I don't think so. Quarks come in sets of three. It's saint's noses that come in twelve packs.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

*blink* I thought saint's noses were a sticky-out part of a turkey?

Quarks come in threes? What if you only want a matching pair? What a pain!

[psychedelicbike.livejournal.com]

That's the pope's nose.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

*blink* I thought saint's noses were a sticky-out part of a turkey?

Those are parson's noses where I come from

Quarks come in threes? What if you only want a matching pair?

Yes, and you can't even get matching colours.

[dpolicar]

If you mean that per-unit price goes down when bought in groups of a dozen, I'm not sure it would change very much.

If you mean that the price of a dozen Xes is always lower than that of one X... there'd be a lot more waste. Especially if it nested. (Eg, a dozen twelve-packs of X costs less than one twelve-pack, which in turn costs less than one X.)

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

think smaller. :)

[zanate.livejournal.com]

Well in that case, life would probably not exist, at least as we understand it.

In fact, one could use the anthropic principle to argue that the fact that things aren't cheaper by the dozen is a critical prerequisite for the development of intelligent life.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

Well, you could, but then you can't have fun with the repercussions. ;)

I think I like the sort of answer psychedelicbike was suggesting, below; 12 copies make the universe possible, for some reason... Which stretches "cheaper" to an abusive level, sure, but... "cheaper" as in the universe doesn't need to be rebuilt every time it fails, maybe. ;)

[dpolicar]

well, past a certain point I'm not sure "cheaper" is the right word.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

"cheaper" as in the universe doesn't need to be rebuilt every time it fails, maybe. ;)

[chezmax]

I think that would make for a very complicated love life :)

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

True, dat.

[nobodyhere.livejournal.com]

And yet you'd be very glad that condoms are cheaper by the dozen.

[psychedelicbike.livejournal.com]

How do you know that there _aren't_ a dozen identical copies of you, all occupying the same space and time, slightly phase-shifted?

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

...in which case the universe is exactly the same as it is, but there are duplicate copies. I like it. In which case 12 gave some benefit greater than 1 or 11 or 13.

Error-correction? Maybe waving hands about *mumble* punching holes in the fabric of the universe, where too few universe-copies would get corrupted, but too many copies are expensive?

Hm.

In that case, can the last one of us out the door please turn off the lights?

[dawn-guy.livejournal.com]

I haven't decided whether it's philosophers or mathematicians who have brainwormed you.

[squeezes smallish blue brain for a bit]

This has already occurred. The dozens have coalesced into fundamental building blocks and entropy is the leakage from collections being long or short one or more pieces.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

...Oh. Ok, got it now; so they used to be cheaper by the dozen, back before inflation.

I hate when I get bluebrain.