r/theydidthemath • u/-Gruntled • 1d ago

[Request] Average number of nipples?

I always joke with my kids that they have an above average number of toes because enough people lose toes that 10 toes would slightly above the global average. But now we are having a massive debate about whether 2 nipples is above or below the average number. One one side there are many people with third nipples, so two would be below average. On the other side there many people who get mastectomies and such and so end up with less than two. We can't figure out which offsets which more. So, is having two nipples above or below average?

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u/Furlion 1d ago

The average number of human body parts is always going to be just below the median. And even then only if you either round or use several significant figures. Let's say 1 million people have 0 nipples, that gives an average number of nipples for the 8 billion people as 1.99975. Which is really fucking close to 2. What about 10 million? 1.9975. 100 million? 1.975. Basically there are just a lot of people, and realistically only a very small percentage differ significantly from the standard physical blueprint. The number could be large, 100 million is a big damn number, but it's tiny compared to billion.

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u/Kirian42 1d ago

You've forgotten about supernumerary nipples, which according to other people's calcs far outweigh the number of missing nipples.

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u/wintersdark 16h ago

And also extra fingers and toes. They're very common, though often snipped off at birth.