4 ms·

it's base 24. after going from single character alpha to omega, then you introduce the second character: alpha alpha, alpha beta, ...

• alok-g 5y ago
  Use of decimal numbers sounds better all of a sudden for naming the virus variants. :-)
  • officialjunk 5y ago
    seems the decimals are already currently being used for virus strains: sars-cov1, sars-cov-2... for variants it could be minor versions such as sars-cov-2.4 but then there may be confusion about them being related sequentially and that one is an "improvement" over the other. :)
    • alok-g 5y ago
      That's just differentiating nominal numbers from others [1]. The same is much too common everywhere -- zipcodes, student ID number, etc. I am still missing reason why the suggested base 24 is better. :-) [1] https://www.mathsisfun.com/numbers/cardinal-ordinal-nominal.html https://www.mathsisfun.com/numbers/cardinal-ordinal-nominal....
      • officialjunk 5y ago
        i'm mostly joking. it's not better, at least not to me.
        • alok-g 5y ago
          The said joking is/was good with me. :-)