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For the title you gave this on HN you sure to present very many reasons as to why it makes a lot of sense (other than more factors). I think probably the harde

by wwortiz 16y ago

For the title you gave this on HN you sure to present very many reasons as to why it makes a lot of sense (other than more factors). I think probably the hardest part for me to learn to count and do math in base 12 would be to use and learn two new symbols to represent 10 and 11. By the way German also has separate words for eleven and twelve.

jgrahamc 16y ago
In the book I mention the author uses three words for the current 10 and 11 and 12: dec, elf and zen. dec from Latin, elf from German and zen to recall that 12 is a dozen. The factors really are the key (since you get lots of easy divisions, a multiplication table that has lots of nice patterns, lots of simplified decimals). Then there's the relationship with 'natural' systems such as months in year, hours in a day etc.
- khafra 16y ago
  A few past civilizations seem to have hit on smooth numbers as their base, instead of the "digits" heuristic. I think both have their advantages.
mooism2 16y ago
Spanish has separate words up to fifteen. French has separate words up to sixteen. The linguistic argument for switching is suspect (even setting aside words such as "twenty" and "hundred").
- wwortiz 16y ago
  I don't know if I would consider 12 and 13 in Spanish separate, but yes it is suspect. I just posted because I was wondering if there were any real advantages to base 12, or some given examples.
- 1amzave 16y ago
  If high school memories serve, Latin has regular number-names for 11 through 17, but then semi-irregular ones for 18 (duodeviginti, or "two from twenty") and 19 (undeviginti, "one from twenty"). (I say semi-irregular because they're inconsistent with 11 through 17, but at least consistent with each other, unlike say "eleven" and "twelve", as far as I can tell.)
algorias 16y ago
I find the argument of language favoring base-12 very weak. If a groundbreaking change like replacing base-10 with 12 (or anything else), language would also be able to evolve and adapt to it. Spanish has words up to fifteen, by the way.

by wwortiz 16y ago

jgrahamc 16y ago

In the book I mention the author uses three words for the current 10 and 11 and 12: dec, elf and zen. dec from Latin, elf from German and zen to recall that 12 is a dozen. The factors really are the key (since you get lots of easy divisions, a multiplication table that has lots of nice patterns, lots of simplified decimals). Then there's the relationship with 'natural' systems such as months in year, hours in a day etc.

khafra 16y ago
A few past civilizations seem to have hit on smooth numbers as their base, instead of the "digits" heuristic. I think both have their advantages.

mooism2 16y ago

Spanish has separate words up to fifteen. French has separate words up to sixteen. The linguistic argument for switching is suspect (even setting aside words such as "twenty" and "hundred").

wwortiz 16y ago
I don't know if I would consider 12 and 13 in Spanish separate, but yes it is suspect. I just posted because I was wondering if there were any real advantages to base 12, or some given examples.
1amzave 16y ago
If high school memories serve, Latin has regular number-names for 11 through 17, but then semi-irregular ones for 18 (duodeviginti, or "two from twenty") and 19 (undeviginti, "one from twenty"). (I say semi-irregular because they're inconsistent with 11 through 17, but at least consistent with each other, unlike say "eleven" and "twelve", as far as I can tell.)

algorias 16y ago

I find the argument of language favoring base-12 very weak. If a groundbreaking change like replacing base-10 with 12 (or anything else), language would also be able to evolve and adapt to it. Spanish has words up to fifteen, by the way.