Math question

[Christopher]

SmoothieX wrote:

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Also, buy a calculator.

As thestrangequark said, the point isn't about results, the point is about understanding the process. Sure, having a car means you don't have to walk everywhere, but the existence of cars doesn't mean we don't need to learn how to walk.

[Rhubarbodendron]

^excellent comparism!

Christopher wrote:

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We use base-10 mathematics because we have ten fingers.

Sorry but I just can't resist: according to this theory all Britons used to have 12 fingers and got two amputated since the 1960s.

[Christopher]

We use 12 a lot because of lunar cycles (roughly 12 months in a year), and because it has a lot of divisors that make it mathematically useful (2, 3, 4, 6). Ten only factors into 2 and 5; it's actually a pretty bad number to choose as a numerical base. But we use it anyway, and it's because we have ten fingers and thus have a natural inclination to count in tens (which is not to say that we're incapable of doing otherwise; some cultures have had base-60 or base-20 mathematics, but those are still multiples of ten).

[Shaytan]

Christopher wrote:

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We use base-10 mathematics because we have ten fingers,

My ancestors were astucious enough to know that they have also 10 toes and they used a base 20 system that survived a little in my language and in the collective culture.
For exemple, there is a hospital in Paris called les quinze-vingts (the 15-20) because it hosted 300 patients when it was created during the Middle Ages.
Another exemple : 80 = quatre-vingt = 4-20 litterally.

[thestrangequark]

Shaytan wrote:

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My ancestors were astucious enough to know that they have also 10 toes and they used a base 20 system that survived a little in my language and in the collective culture.
For exemple, there is a hospital in Paris called les quinze-vingts (the 15-20) because it hosted 300 patients when it was created during the Middle Ages.
Another exemple : 80 = quatre-vingt = 4-20 litterally.

But then you all started designing fabulous footwear and, alas, the base 20 system met its end. It's glorious, kitten-heeled end.

[Christopher]

Again, I never said humans were limited to using only base 10, so I don't understand the objections. I just said that's the reason we use base 10 at all.

[Shaytan]

thestrangequark wrote:

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But then you all started designing fabulous footwear and, alas, the base 20 system met its end. It's glorious, kitten-heeled end.

Everything has to end so it'd better be in a silly and elegant way
But we're too sentimental to completely forget it.

Christopher wrote:

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Again, I never said humans were limited to using only base 10, so I don't understand the objections. I just said that's the reason we use base 10 at all.

Where do you see an objection ?

[thestrangequark]

Christopher wrote:

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Again, I never said humans were limited to using only base 10, so I don't understand the objections. I just said that's the reason we use base 10 at all.

Dude...no one has objected...

[Christopher]

Well, that's what Rhubarbodendron's comment sounded like.

[Deranged Nasat]

The Minbari in Babylon Five use base 11; 10 fingers plus the head.

That's my useless contribution to the topic .

[thestrangequark]

Christopher wrote:

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Well, that's what Rhubarbodendron's comment sounded like.

I do believe she was making a joke.

[Robert Maxwell]

Christopher wrote:

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Well, that's what Rhubarbodendron's comment sounded like.

It was a joke, dude.

[Gov Kodos]

Deranged Nasat wrote:

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The Minbari in Babylon Five use base 11; 10 fingers plus the head.

That's my useless contribution to the topic .

And Centauri use six bases for the ladies...

[thestrangequark]

Deranged Nasat wrote:

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The Minbari in Babylon Five use base 11; 10 fingers plus the head.

That's my useless contribution to the topic .

In Contact the creators of the universe used base 11 too.

[CorporalCaptain]

No contemporary discussion of numeral bases would be complete without mentioning that, because computer memory is ultimately composed of bits, computer scientists frequently use bases that are various powers of two: binary itself (base 2), octal (base 8), and hexadecimal (base 16). Base 64 also has a place, although it's rare, if ever, for data in that base to be directly manipulated by humans.