4 ms·

That's a brilliant way to argue about it, makes total sense. What would you say is invented by total happenstance and the world would be totally different if th

That's a brilliant way to argue about it, makes total sense. What would you say is invented by total happenstance and the world would be totally different if the person had not?

Ididntdothis 7y ago
I would say alphabets, languages, religions, fashions. Numbering systems? Is there an advantage in going base 10 vs base 11? Now that I think about it base 8 may be better.
- patrec 7y ago
  > Is there an advantage in going base 10 vs base 11? Yes, you can divide by powers of two and five and exactly represent the result. When did you last feel an urge to divide something into 11 parts? > Now that I think about it base 8 may be better. Well, that would have given us nicer shutter-times and screw sizes, "Megabytes", max_ints and better floats for money calculations as well as slightly better numerical properties. But personally I think 6 or 30 would have been the way to go. Being able to divide nicely by the first two primes seems pretty practically useful to me.
  - thaumasiotes 7y ago
    > When did you last feel an urge to divide something into 11 parts? When did you last feel an urge to divide something into 5 parts?
    - patrec 7y ago
      I feel this urge a lot more often than you seem to think :)
    - cpach 7y ago
      I have a wife and three kids, so for me that doesn’t feel very far-fetched :)
- spectramax 7y ago
  Arguably, Duodecimal would have been better. 12 is divisble by a large number of factors and it has some more interesting aspects outlined here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duodecimal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duodecimal
  - _bxg1 7y ago
    Came here to say this. We got 10 instead because we have 10 fingers to count on.
    - abjKT26nO8 7y ago
      And when was the last time you counted something on your fingers that was more than 3? Also, quoting parent's link: > It is possible to count to 12 with the thumb acting as a pointer, touching each finger bone in turn. A traditional finger counting system still in use in many regions of Asia works in this way, and could help to explain the occurrence of numeral systems based on 12 and 60 besides those based on 10, 20 and 5. In this system, the one (usually right) hand counts repeatedly to 12, displaying the number of iterations on the other (usually left), until five dozens, i. e. the 60, are full.
      - _bxg1 7y ago
        > And when was the last time you counted something on your fingers that was more than 3? ??? I'm not talking about me, I'm talking about the thousands of years of human history that got us here?
    - thaumasiotes 7y ago
      > We got 10 instead because we have 10 fingers to count on. People have counted in 12s by reference to the knuckles on each finger. Even more commonly, people have counted in 20s by reference to fingers and toes. You can point to fingers as the reason for a base 10 system instead of a base 11 system, but you can't really point to them as the reason for a base 10 system uniquely.
  - patrec 7y ago

That's a brilliant way to argue about it, makes total sense. What would you say is invented by total happenstance and the world would be totally different if the person had not?

Ididntdothis 7y ago

I would say alphabets, languages, religions, fashions. Numbering systems? Is there an advantage in going base 10 vs base 11? Now that I think about it base 8 may be better.

patrec 7y ago
> Is there an advantage in going base 10 vs base 11? Yes, you can divide by powers of two and five and exactly represent the result. When did you last feel an urge to divide something into 11 parts? > Now that I think about it base 8 may be better. Well, that would have given us nicer shutter-times and screw sizes, "Megabytes", max_ints and better floats for money calculations as well as slightly better numerical properties. But personally I think 6 or 30 would have been the way to go. Being able to divide nicely by the first two primes seems pretty practically useful to me.
- thaumasiotes 7y ago
  > When did you last feel an urge to divide something into 11 parts? When did you last feel an urge to divide something into 5 parts?
  - patrec 7y ago
    I feel this urge a lot more often than you seem to think :)
  - cpach 7y ago
    I have a wife and three kids, so for me that doesn’t feel very far-fetched :)
spectramax 7y ago
Arguably, Duodecimal would have been better. 12 is divisble by a large number of factors and it has some more interesting aspects outlined here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duodecimal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duodecimal
- _bxg1 7y ago
  Came here to say this. We got 10 instead because we have 10 fingers to count on.
  - abjKT26nO8 7y ago
    And when was the last time you counted something on your fingers that was more than 3? Also, quoting parent's link: > It is possible to count to 12 with the thumb acting as a pointer, touching each finger bone in turn. A traditional finger counting system still in use in many regions of Asia works in this way, and could help to explain the occurrence of numeral systems based on 12 and 60 besides those based on 10, 20 and 5. In this system, the one (usually right) hand counts repeatedly to 12, displaying the number of iterations on the other (usually left), until five dozens, i. e. the 60, are full.
    - _bxg1 7y ago
      > And when was the last time you counted something on your fingers that was more than 3? ??? I'm not talking about me, I'm talking about the thousands of years of human history that got us here?
  - thaumasiotes 7y ago
    > We got 10 instead because we have 10 fingers to count on. People have counted in 12s by reference to the knuckles on each finger. Even more commonly, people have counted in 20s by reference to fingers and toes. You can point to fingers as the reason for a base 10 system instead of a base 11 system, but you can't really point to them as the reason for a base 10 system uniquely.
- patrec 7y ago