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Base-12 is a wonderful number system. 12 is divisible 2,3,4 and 6. What's 10 divisible by? 2 and 5. In an ideal society, maybe they'd use a kind of metric base-
by macawfish 7y ago
Base-12 is a wonderful number system. 12 is divisible 2,3,4 and 6. What's 10 divisible by? 2 and 5. In an ideal society, maybe they'd use a kind of metric base-12 system.
That'd offer the best of both inches/feet and the simplicity of the metric system's scaling.
- Aardwolf 7y agoBase-16 would've been more useful imho, from a computer science perspective :) What does one need fractions for actually? You can measure with digits behind the point. I find 3.5 and 4.6 easier to compare then 7/2 and 23/5.
- macawfish 7y agoNow that you mention it, I suppose one of my favorite things about inches are their base-2 subdivisions (e.g. 16ths). The orders of magnitude aren't nearly as drastic as with base 10. They're much more intuitive and easier to estimate visually. Fractions are great for mental math, especially division, in situations where you might be working with wood for example. 6 months of carpentry made me appreciate feet and inches in a new way.
- XCSme 7y agoYou have (probably) 10 fingers, thus base 10.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- jhasse 7y agowouldnt base 11 make more sense then?
- Grue3 7y agoIf you ignore the thumbs, each finger has 3 subsections, so in total you have 12 "slots" on your hand. And you can use them to count with the spare thumb. It's even more convenient than counting on fingers because you're only using one hand, and the other one is free!