Why do people count : 1 Mississippi 2 Mississippi...?

Question

I'm from Europe and I have heard a few people count this way. Why?

Answer 1

when you want to time something in seconds, you need something to delay you for the right amount of time to get the seconds right.

Look at a clock and count out 15 seconds using Mississippi. If it takes you 17 secs to count to 15, use a shorter word, like Elephant

for minutes, I have a tune I hum that takes 30 secs.

I heard a priest wanted to time the sunsetting from when it first touched the horizen to when it completely disappeared. He worked it out using his rosery prayer that was the same length every time he said it.

Answer 2

If you are trying to count in seconds you might do this as the time it takes to say mississippi is a second. If you count 1, 2, 3, 4 etc (without the mississippi) then you will go too fast. Some people use elephant instead of mississippi.

Answer 3

Meaning Of Mississippi

Answer 4

Hello my friend,
Saying the words '1 Mississippi' , '2 Mississippi' , '3 Mississippi' , and so on, is one way of counting off seconds of time.

It is not 100% accurate, but depending on the speed in which you say it, it is close.

I hope this helps.

Ollie G
http://www.df4u2.com

Answer 5

People say "One Mississippi, two Mississippi..." to count seconds. It takes one second to say Mississippi. By counting with the word "Mississippi" between the numbers, you could count seconds. Instead of Mississippi, some people say locomotive or another word.

Answer 6

Haha. i think of i comprehend what acquaintances episode you're speaking approximately. The count variety, a million Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, .... and so on. is what human beings on protection say in pickup soccer video games. many times a pickup sport would not have sufficient gamers to style an offensive line to guard the QB, so the protection will count variety to 5 Mississippi ahead of being allowed to pass address the QB. No, it is not carried out interior the NFL.

Answer 7

Because by saying mississippi it would be 1 whole second.

Answer 8

My assumption would be that since "Mississippi" is a long word, it's harder for young kids to pronounce -- they count this way while playing hide-and-seek. Therefore it's hard for them to count off a "mississippi" in less than a second, thereby ensuring that they aren't cheating.

Answer 9

because saying the word Mississippi is as long as a whole second. and it Helps if you cant keep a beat.

Answer 10

cos when you say 1 mississippi than that counts as one second.

but say if you were counting 1..2..3..4...5.....6 you might cound faster or slower than one second.
hope this helps x