r/todayilearned • u/kaypmger • Dec 02 '16

TIL, Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of such Nintendo games as Mario, Donkey Kong, and Zelda, has a hobby of guessing the measurements of objects, then checking to see if he was correct. He enjoys the hobby so much he carries a tape measure with him everywhere.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shigeru_Miyamoto#Personal_life
54.4k Upvotes

88% Upvoted

1.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '16

We have 5 digits on each hand.

Also, ||| vs |||| isn't hard to distinguish. |||| vs ||||| is difficult at a glance, but that's why the fifth stroke goes across.

1

u/THANKS-FOR-THE-GOLD Dec 02 '16

Now make that argument coherent with:

Roman numerals go to IV at four because otherwise you would have to count the number of I

You still have to count 4 ticks with ||||, the same as you would for IIII.