The Magical Properties of Everyday Numbers [http://www.nytimes.com]

Shared by Max Quante volte siamo fregati dai numeri? Quanto i numeri sono semplicemente... abitudine?In inglese, ma molto interessante. [...]The problem is that Constantine didn’t know a thing about bacteria, and yet modern doctors continue to hon...

Shared by Max

Quante volte siamo fregati dai numeri? Quanto i numeri sono semplicemente… abitudine?
In inglese, ma molto interessante.

[…]The problem is that Constantine didn’t know a thing about bacteria, and yet modern doctors continue to honor his edict. If patients are typically told that every 24 hours (24 being the magic number that corresponds to the rotation of the earth) they should take three pills (three being the magic number that divides any time period into a beginning, middle and end) and that they should do this for seven days, they will end up taking 21 pills.

If even one of those pills is unnecessary — that is, if people who take 20 pills get just as healthy just as fast as people who take 21 — then millions of people are taking at least 5 percent more medication than they actually need. This overdose contributes not only to the punishing costs of health care, but also to the evolution of the antibiotic-resistant strains of “superbugs” that may someday decimate our species. All of which seems like a rather high price to pay for fealty to ancient Rome.[…]

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