3 ms·
Why would aliens work in base10?
by jjcon 6y ago
Why would aliens work in base10?
- 8organicbits 6y agoLooks like they had 3 fingers per hand, so base 6 seems a likely choice. 6 works great as its divisible by 2 and 3. I wonder what base we would use if we (somehow) had a prime number of fingers. 2, 6, 30, 60?
- jsilence 6y agoOnly on HN...
- cryptoz 6y agoBut what you call base 6 they might call base 10 every base is is base 10...from a certain perspective
- masklinn 6y ago> Looks like they had 3 fingers per hand, so base 6 seems a likely choice. Depends how they use their fingers and whether they use other body parts. There is evidence for human cultures having ranged from 4 to 10, 12, 16, and 20 (technically there are higher ones but they usually have sub-bases in that range). You can count to 12 on a single hand (24 on two hands) by pointing phalanges with the thumb for instance. Some native cultures had base 8 using the space between the fingers rather than the fingers themselves.
- jhardy54 6y agoOpinion: Highly composite numbers make good bases. 2, 6, 12, 60, etc Number of fingers doesn't matter, although you can shoehorn almost any base into them. For example, base 6 lets you count to 5 on one hand and use your other to coujt multiples of 6. This lets you count to 35 on two hands. More info here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superior_highly_composite_number https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superior_highly_composite_nu...
- learnstats2 6y agoetc: 360 is a useful number of days for a calendar system
- def8cefe 6y agoThey may have 10 of something else...
- jackcosgrove 6y agoThe ancient Sumerian number system was base 6. Our units of time are still based on that. 60 seconds, 60 minutes, 24 hours.
- hedora 6y agoGiven all the probing they do, they’re clearly after our best ideas. They’ll be converting to imperial units and base 10 any day now. Converting the flying saucers to coal will take a bit longer.