4 ms·

I'd assume if we used base 12 for everything we'd also use it for writing numbers too. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a b so 10 would be 12

• btilly 11y ago
  You have to be clear on the difference between the number and its representation. In English we represent numbers in base 10 unless otherwise specified. Hence you say things like, The base 12 number 10 is 12. I did not otherwise specify, so I represented my numbers in base 10 everywhere even though I was talking about base 12.
  • kuschku 11y ago
    In math, we prefer to use either (101010)_2 or (101010)2 or 101010_2 – which represents (42)_10 (With TeX formatting implied)
    • btilly 11y ago
      We do? In my experience mathematicians almost always assume base 10 and don't bother indicating it. In fact we mostly indicate the base when there is a good possibility that it isn't 10, and any stray numbers fail to have a base represented, they should be assumed to be base 10. (Mathematical notation mostly uses sensible defaults except for differential geometry.)
      • kuschku 11y ago
        Yes – but if we do want to talk about other bases, we use this format. Implicit default for a number x is obviously (x)_10, as mathematicians are lazy.
  • alricb 11y ago
    If we weren't afraid to confuse our Greek readers, we could just use greek letters: ω (=0) α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ, with ' to indicate a number: 15 would be written 'αγ. But see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_numerals https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_numerals