4 ms·

Still, wouldn't base 12 be better than base 10 ?

by toolslive 1y ago

IAmBroom 1y ago
Pretty much everyone born from -2,500 BCE to ~1800 CE would agree, and a significant of those born since.
ahazred8ta 1y ago
https://dozenal.org/ https://dozenal.org/ The Dozenal Society of America would agree with you.
sham1 1y ago
Number bases are arbitrary. Like, base 12 certainly has interesting properties since it is a highly composite number, but a lot of the convenient representations can be achieved by using actual fractions instead of insisting on radix points/commas. For example, 1/4 being 0.3 in base 12 can make certain computations easier (just as a 1/3 being 0.4_12 would), but again, what's wrong with 1/4 and 1/3 respectively. Of course, things like duodecimal and base-6 are interesting to use, but at this point the convention is base-10 and it probably won't change for a while. It's kinda like the \pi Vs \tau debate, where even with all the elegance and easier pedagogy brought by the use of \tau as the fundamental circle constant, the existing convention does matter, and probably matters a lot more in general than the better alternative. Of course, this also applied to the SI units. It literally took a major historical revolution for these units to be a) defined and b) getting used over the old units.
- timewizard 1y ago
  > Number bases are arbitrary. You could do it that way if you didn't care at all for how people actually use the system or what they would prefer; however, it's just your decision that's arbitrary, not the actual choice of "best base for worldwide everyday use." > 1/4 being 0.3 in base 12 And 5/6ths is 0.A in hexadecimal base 12. The choice of a base should imply a choice of alphabet. For something like base 12 you may actually want to rediscover or invent new numeral characters. > but at this point the convention is base-10 Except for time. Which appears constantly in physical units. > b) getting used over the old units. Even then. No one will tell you the sun is "93 Gm" from Earth. It's always 93 million km. They haven't exactly gotten into the new system just yet. They've just swapped base units.
- toolslive 1y ago
  > Number bases are arbitrary. They are not: base 2 is minimal, but not practical for humans. You would not force base 2310 to anyone even though it has a nice set of divisors. So there is a sweet spot somewhere between 6 and 16.

Still, wouldn't base 12 be better than base 10 ?

IAmBroom 1y ago

Pretty much everyone born from -2,500 BCE to ~1800 CE would agree, and a significant of those born since.

ahazred8ta 1y ago

https://dozenal.org/ https://dozenal.org/ The Dozenal Society of America would agree with you.

sham1 1y ago

Number bases are arbitrary. Like, base 12 certainly has interesting properties since it is a highly composite number, but a lot of the convenient representations can be achieved by using actual fractions instead of insisting on radix points/commas. For example, 1/4 being 0.3 in base 12 can make certain computations easier (just as a 1/3 being 0.4_12 would), but again, what's wrong with 1/4 and 1/3 respectively. Of course, things like duodecimal and base-6 are interesting to use, but at this point the convention is base-10 and it probably won't change for a while. It's kinda like the \pi Vs \tau debate, where even with all the elegance and easier pedagogy brought by the use of \tau as the fundamental circle constant, the existing convention does matter, and probably matters a lot more in general than the better alternative. Of course, this also applied to the SI units. It literally took a major historical revolution for these units to be a) defined and b) getting used over the old units.

timewizard 1y ago
> Number bases are arbitrary. You could do it that way if you didn't care at all for how people actually use the system or what they would prefer; however, it's just your decision that's arbitrary, not the actual choice of "best base for worldwide everyday use." > 1/4 being 0.3 in base 12 And 5/6ths is 0.A in hexadecimal base 12. The choice of a base should imply a choice of alphabet. For something like base 12 you may actually want to rediscover or invent new numeral characters. > but at this point the convention is base-10 Except for time. Which appears constantly in physical units. > b) getting used over the old units. Even then. No one will tell you the sun is "93 Gm" from Earth. It's always 93 million km. They haven't exactly gotten into the new system just yet. They've just swapped base units.
toolslive 1y ago
> Number bases are arbitrary. They are not: base 2 is minimal, but not practical for humans. You would not force base 2310 to anyone even though it has a nice set of divisors. So there is a sweet spot somewhere between 6 and 16.