Plural and math

Today my status message was:

(o^^)o Come on, give me a hug. o(^^o)
Currently, 1 hug+2 unhugs = 1 unhug = -1 hugs

Which make a question arise, should I use plural for -1 hugs or should I use singular?

On Wikipedia's Grammatical number page:

The number of apples is marked on the noun — "apple", singular number (one item) vs. "apples", plural number (more than one item) —, on the demonstrative, "that/those", and on the verb, "is/are".

In a mathematical term, all numbers larger than 1 is defined as plural.

With that definition, -1 is not plural or singular.
Then the problem arises, what should be used to describe the following?
"0 hugs" or "0 hug"? Everyone around me say it's plural, so I guess I will go with it.
"-1 hugs" or "-1 hug"?
"0.24 hugs" or "0.24 hug"?
"1/17 hugs" or "1/17 hug"?
"1+2i hugs" or "1+2i hug"? Because complex numbers are not comparable.
"<3,2,7> hugs" or "<3,2,7> hug"?
"∞ hugs" or "∞ hug" when ∞ is on real projective line?
"x hugs" or "x hug" when x is unknown?

The English language didn't anticipate the development of numbers.
Some food for thought.
Hugs to my blog readers.


1+ (-)2= (-1). I learnt that

1+ (-)2= (-1). I learnt that when i was 10 years old. Is that kind of math you learn in the US, even swedish students know much more then you.

It's very interesting how

Mgccl's picture

It's very interesting how you can completely ignore the point of the entire article, and pointing to something that in the end showing you have no idea what exactly that math equation was going to express.
If I just give you the number -1, then how do you know where does the -1 come from? I could got 2 hugs and 3 unhugs. Seriously... Do you even understand what does it mean by the informational content of a equation compare to a number?
You Epic FAIL!

Yeah i guess you are right.

Yeah i guess you are right. (Nerd)

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