I've always had a bit of an existential crisis when it comes to numbers. It's not just that I'm bad at math (which, let's be real, I absolutely am)—it's that numbers, as a concept, don't fully make sense to me. My mom still loves telling the story of when she tried to teach me addition as a kid. She set down an apple in front of me and said, "This is one apple." Cool, got it. Then she placed another one beside it and proudly declared, "Now there are two apples!"
And that's where she lost me.
"Wait, but why? Is it because they're touching?" I asked, utterly confused. My mom, already regretting this life lesson, sighed: "No, it's just… two apples. That's how numbers work." Then she added a third apple and said "This is three apples". I panicked. "So do I have to memorize a whole new word for every possible number of apples?!" My mom laughed. I did not.
To this day, I still struggle with the idea that "two" is even real. Either something exists, or it doesn't. 1s and 0s. That's it. And honestly? I feel like if I had this conversation with a philosopher, they might actually back me up.
Anyway, these 31 science memes are for those of us who love science but prefer to laugh at its mysteries rather than solve them with math. Enjoy!
