3 ms·

The momentum of C seems so vast that replacing it is like getting humans to switch to a base-12 number system

• qayxc 4y ago
  That's a weird analogy considering humans used base-12 (and base-20 and base-60) number systems for most of history.
  • bowsamic 4y ago
    Really? Wikipedia says it is historically uncommon EDIT: What language uses base-60??
    • jstimpfle 4y ago
      Minutes in an hour, seconds in a minute, and something about degrees.
    • Qem 4y ago
      Babylonians used it. That's the origin of our time counting system of hours, minutes and seconds and our angle measuring system of degrees, minutes and seconds. Anyway, if we someday change our number system away from 10, I hope the change will be towards a smaller base, like 8 or 6, because when one is a child, it sucks to learn the times tables. Base 12 would increase the number of entries by 44%. Base 8 would decrease them by 46%, and base 6 would have only 6*6=36 very easy to remember entries.
      • bowsamic 4y ago
        That's not a pure number system though, because it didn't have a separate character for each digit
        • Qem 4y ago
          In cuneiform they probably had.