Depends on how the song is interpreted. The intention is probably “by the 𝑛ᵗʰ day of Christmas, my true love had given to me [list of 𝑛+(𝑛–1)+…1 items]” but the actual grammar means that by day 12, you’d have received 𝑛(13–𝑛) of the 𝑛ᵗʰ item, or
- 12 drummers drumming
- 22 pipers piping
- 30 lords-a leaping
- 36 ladies dancing
- 40 maids a-milking
- 42 swans a-swimming
- 42 geese a-laying
- 40 gold rings
- 36 calling birds
- 30 French hens
- 22 turtle doves
- 12 partriges in pear trees
Total is 184 birds. By day 7, only 69 birds, up 50 % from 46 by day 6. At least the number of received birds stays constant (23) on days 8-12. The geese technically-a-reproducing are not accounted for, as the eggs might not be fertilized and take several weeks to hatch.
Also explored in an awesome video by Vihart: YouTube/Piped/Vimeo
Curse you Carl Friedrich Gauss and your distribution! Is there no escape?!?
It’s a parabola actually, the function is –𝑛²+13𝑛.
The reason Gauss is mentioned in Vihart’s video is that he famously invented the formula for triangular numbers.
this is why i come to lemmy
this is why i lemmy
Oh damn I did not know Vihart was still going! Tis a good day.
does each maid come with a cow (or goat) they are milking? within a month (35 days) some of those goose eggs will hatch too.
I would be so happy to receive 42 geese. It gives a really healthy head start to my goose army.
Fourty! Golden! Rings!
You should just be grateful your true love didn’t give you any hedgehogs.
the golden rings are birds, specifically gold Ring-necked Pheasants
Lol, eight maids a milking… Slaves. He’s sending you slaves darling.
Consider the gender distribution of:
- eight maids a-milking
- nine ladies dancing
- ten lords a-leaping
- eleven pipers piping
- twelve drummers drumming
Some deep fetish shit is about to go down
Hey them pipers and drummers could be ladies! Its current year
Or he’s letting you in on a very specific fetish…
are cows included? or are they a-milking something else?
Each other, which is why the sex matters
Only Hucows
All 140 humans, including the 22 lords, are slaves. You don’t otherwise “own” humans like birds or rings.
Excuse me they’re dinner.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Here is a Vimeo link: https://vimeo.com/147797331
deleted by creator
Or hired to do a show, since English isn’t that specific. Being gifted someone dancing doesn’t usually mean you own that person. It just means someone was paid to dance as a show for you.
It’s 184 birds, 140 humans, 40 rings, and 12 trees. The rings are almost a normal present but when it’s that many you’re just Sauron.
Edit: fixed math
I think whoever wrote the song was just hungry.
- From days 8 to 12 your true love gives you milkmaids, dancing ladies, leaping lords, pipers and drummers. Human beings. As gifts. Which makes eating the birds feel a lot more okay.
- This carol was written back when Christmas was a mere 12 days long. Now Christmas starts in mid-October. “On the ninety-ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, ninety-nine wall beers…”
At least you can eat the geese. What the heck am I going to do with turtledoves and partridges?
People used to routinely eat just about every bird there was. The only reason nobody bothers with songbirds is that they’re too small to be worth a damn. Remember the passenger pigeon? The extinct one. Yeah we literally ate that into extinction.
I’ve eaten partridge before. It’s not bad. Not sure I’d eat turtledove if I had other options.
What about the French hens? Those seem like the likely nom nom candidate.
I wonder who’s behind it. c/birdsarentreal
Oh…but your true love gives you those same quantities of gifts every day plus the new thing on the new day.
If my true love flips me the bird, she might not be my true love after all.
This is quality shit.
