I get your point. To add further weight to it, the snippet above is from an informal, likely fast paced IM conversation. Which makes considered analysis pedantic and socially uncalibrated.
That said, I found the 10 to 1000 estimate surprising.
The person asking the question hasn’t seen the tree.
He is merely picking one out of the woods.
Say a tree has 100 apples. Come late autumn any apples will fall, to ten, to one, and then to none.
The fact that ordinary apple trees ordinarily have no apples at least raises the possibility.
0 to 1000 apples would certainly be correct. Which is what we want.
How many dollars are in my wallet? (I haven’t looked.)
I get your point. To add further weight to it, the snippet above is from an informal, likely fast paced IM conversation. Which makes considered analysis pedantic and socially uncalibrated.
That said, I found the 10 to 1000 estimate surprising.
The person asking the question hasn’t seen the tree. He is merely picking one out of the woods.
Say a tree has 100 apples. Come late autumn any apples will fall, to ten, to one, and then to none.
The fact that ordinary apple trees ordinarily have no apples at least raises the possibility.
0 to 1000 apples would certainly be correct. Which is what we want.
How many dollars are in my wallet? (I haven’t looked.)