I like the detail that there alien has 4(10) fingers as opposed to the 10(22) that the human has.
this post was submitted on 24 May 2024
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There are only 10 ways of doing things: the right way and the wrong way. (Programming joke)
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Can we all use base 12?
It will be a shower of shit for like 50 years but then it will be marginally better for pretty much everyone.
so, 60 years in base 10
42* years. Centuries are now 84 years. We are living in the 19th century! I rate this idea 12/12.
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50 years? I bet we couldn't even agree on how to write "11" & "12" on such short notice. (See: date format, encoding, etc)
we could just go with the hexidecimal way and go with A,B,C for 10,11 and 12
Over my dead body.
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Well we write 12 like this: 10
It's easy
oops I mean "10" & "11"
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That's Acadian, right? It was originally based on the number of easy to count bones in your fingers (12-24)
Or better yet, base 6?
Why base 12 though? Base 16 is even better. And base 60 is even better than that!
Common denominators. You can divide base 12 into half, thirds, fourths, and sixths and still use integers. I find thirds to be particularly useful, so base 16 is out. Base 60 can do it, but that's getting unweildly.
There are no common denominators in base 12 that you can't use in base 84, and the latter also has 7 as a common denominator.
I, for one, vote for changing our base to 84.
Can't do base 12 on fingers. I prefer base 8.
Just add left arm, right arm to it or, if you're a guy nose and dick.
Certainly, especially the male version, it would make the visual act of counting far more funny to watch.
I think I'm starting to warm up to the whole base 12 idea...
Base 6. One hand and a arm. Let's me get all the way to 41.
You can do base 12 on fingers! You count each of the 3 segments on each finger and ignore the thumb (you can use it to keep your place), so you can count up to 12 on just one hand! :)
This is why I'm not totally sold on the idea that we use base 10 because we have 10 fingers. There are a lot of ways to count with your fingers. Plus, there are many cultures throughout human history that use something else. Base 10 in modern times might just be a historical quirk.
iirc, the reason that time is base 60 is because some ancient peoples figured out how to count to 60 on their fingers.
I can count to 1023 using both hands but only to 31 using one.
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8 fingered Johnny...
Base 69?
Nice
This would be great. I was researching why we don't have 10 based clocks and then I saw a video about why a 12 and 60 based system is actually much more convenient and now I would love a 'dozen based metric system'
Some people argue that it would be harder to count on your fingers but we could just surgically give everyone more?
Binary is very good for counting with your fingers. With both hands you can count to 1023. One hand is 31, which is still usually more than you typically need to count. It's also trivial to do once you know how binary works. It takes very little thought, though potentially the decoding could take a bit depending on your proficiency.
I made it to 27 on my first attempt, so def messed up somewhere. Also, my fingers don't want to work that way.
Doable.
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When was the last time you've actually needed to count something on your fingers?
✌🏻 days ago
Edit: 👌🏻 days ago
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Billions of years ago, our collective great-great-great-[several million more]-grandparent evolved a fin with a five bone structure. That idiot didn't know anything about common denominators, and now we're stuck with this numeric system that can't divide things into thirds without causing issues.
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There are 12 sections on your fingers (excluding your thumb) you then use your thumb to count to 12 on one hand.
Two hands can allow you to count to 24. Which is way higher than 10. Base 12 is better!
To be fair, you should be comparing 2 hands in base 12 to 2 hands in base 10, I. E. 20:24. Still a real difference, but not the 10:24 difference you pointed out.
Bold of you to assume I'd ever remember this counting technique. Hell I'm shocked I remember counting my fingers for base 10..
With 2 hands you can count to 144.
- 12*12 on one hand + 12 on the other one
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The most reliable way to communicate bases would probably be using unary. Now if your alien is using unary, that might not work, but it should for all higher bases.
I'm not sure if I fully understand.
I was thinking, wouldn't it be easiest to describe the system you use by taking the last number in your first decimum and then saying you increment it with one?
E.g. for base ten this would be: base 9 + 1
For binary it would be: base 1 + 1
For hexadecimal it would be: base F + 1
Etc.
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Plot twist: there are 8 other stones and the alien is really using base 10 (or base 30 if you use base 4)
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Wow I never thought about that.
But it is always like this:
let there be any base "b"
That can represent a number by the sum of their positional digits:
number = sum(d_i * b ^ i)
where i is the position index and d_i is the digit at this position. (note: index starts with 0, from the least digit farthest to the right)
So the (decimal) number 4 in base 4 is then
1×4¹ + 0×4^0 = 10
And (decimal) number 8 in base 8 is
1×8¹ + 0×8^0 = 10
And 10 in base 10:
1×10¹ + 0×10^0 = 10
Which is why to write hexadecimal, we added letters to it, because there isn't a digit for "12".