Introducing British Numerals

Arabic numerals are ace. But they have one big weakness: when you are trying to order food in a pub, it’s very hard to tell if you are on table six or table nine, because those numbers are the same shape upside down. That means we have to rely on contextual clues, which may or may not be available, and increase cognitive load.

That’s why I’ve invented British numerals. They’re based on the solid foundation of Arabic numerals but fixes the 6/9 problem. Plus, I’ve given it a name that even the increasingly right-wing public can get behind.

Move over Andrew Wiles, Britain has a new maths hero.

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This entry was posted on Friday, November 21st, 2025 at 3:03 pm and is filed under Science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.