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What are the advantages of duodecimal over heximal/base-6. Since they have the same prime factors, the same fractions are representable as terminating decimals,
by wakamoleguy 9y ago
What are the advantages of duodecimal over heximal/base-6. Since they have the same prime factors, the same fractions are representable as terminating decimals, right? With larger numbers you would use fewer digits. Anything else?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- AstralStorm 9y agoEase of division by 4 mostly. Quarters are commonly used factors. This is probably also why Babylonians used 60 instead of 30.
- jon_richards 9y agoI always thought this partially had to do with how many oars a Babylonian boat had, but I can't find any reference to that now.
- Someone 9y agoHumans can comfortably and reliably count to twelve on one hand by pointing the point of their thumb to each of the twelve phalanges on the other four fingers. Why would you give up half that range?
- jacobolus 9y agoA big point of hand counting is displaying numbers silently across the room. Thumb-counting finger sections is almost worthless for this. Counting to yourself using hands is not really all that useful for mental arithmetic, IMO. I don’t consider that a particularly meaningful or practical metric by which to judge number systems.