No reason

[da]

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

Comments

[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. ;)