Some bases are inherently better for small integer arithmetic. Every base has difficulty representing some fractions. For example, 1/3 is written in base 10 as

Some bases are inherently better for small integer arithmetic. Every base has difficulty representing some fractions. For example, 1/3 is written in base 10 as 0.333... The 3 repeats forever. You can use explicit notation like a line over the top, but that's still just a workaround. The Babylonians used base 60, which has many more prime factors than base 10: 60 can be divided evenly by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 30, and 60. 60 is a lot of digits to remember, though. That presents its own overhead. Some people advocate base 12: it's only two more digits, and it's evenly divisible by 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 12. 1/5 is a mess, though: 0.24972497...