What is the underlying reason cited for the specific number in the famous failure quote often being inflated in popular retellings?

Answer

The number is often inflated by cultural memory to better represent the magnitude of the struggle.

The discrepancy between cited numbers occurs because the larger, round number is culturally adopted to emphasize the vast scope of the effort involved in his experimentation, rather than reflecting an exact empirical count.

What is the underlying reason cited for the specific number in the famous failure quote often being inflated in popular retellings?
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