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> Because big-endian matches how most humans have done it for most of history ("five hundred twenty one" is written "521" or "DXXI", not "125" or "IXXD"). Actu
by ahomescu1 11y ago
> Because big-endian matches how most humans have done it for most of history ("five hundred twenty one" is written "521" or "DXXI", not "125" or "IXXD").
Actually, it is possible that that was nothing more than an accident. We use Arabic numerals, and Arabic languages are written right-to-left. Then there are languages like German where digits are read in reverse, so "42" is read as "two-and-forty".
- hyperpape 11y agoDo they also call 1042 "Forty two and one thousand"?
- ahomescu1 11y agoAfter looking up some German for beginners (German speakers, feel free to correct me), I found out that 1042 is read like "one thousand two and forty".
- mschulze 11y agoGerman speaker here, that's correct. When the number is between 1000-1999 the "one" in "one thousand" is sometimes omitted, so "thousand two and forty".
- DavidSJ 11y agoAlso known as middle endian.
- mitchty 11y agoEven if its weird, its nothing like French numerals.
- Joky 11y agoAren't the only weirdness in French 70, 80 and 90? That's nothing compared to German :)
- smcl 11y agoGeorgian has a fun number system too - numbers between 20-90 are expressed as a multiple of 20 + a number between 1 and 19: http://blog.conjugate.cz/georgian-is-fun http://blog.conjugate.cz/georgian-is-fun
- mitchty 11y agoIts weird its not consistent! :D The german thing is just weird until you get used to it, with french I constantly go, wait, crap this is over 70, whats the deal again. I blame the wine consumption.
- tallanvor 11y agoCan't be worse than Dutch counting!
- kylebgorman 11y agoThe German "decade flip" is restricted to the tens and unit places; otherwise the order is English-like, with larger terms leading. The cardinal number systems for most major languages lead with larger terms (as in English). I don't think there's anything deep about this, it's probably an accident. And there are languages which lead with smaller terms, such as Malagasy (the national language of Madagascar). The ordering of digits in Arabic is not obviously relevant, per se, since spoken English ("one hundred twenty one") matches the order of the Arabic numbers, too.
- ahomescu1 11y ago> The ordering of digits in Arabic is not obviously relevant, per se, since spoken English ("one hundred twenty one") matches the order of the Arabic numbers, too. I think it is relevant. It is possible that Western mathematics copied the Arabic notation (with right-to-left numbers), without also copying the correct way to read it (also right-to-left). For a similar situation in language, think of accents and the many different ways you can pronounce the same word.
- kylebgorman 11y agoUnlikely. Cardinal numbers in Old English, long before the slightest chance of contact with Arabs, were virtually identical to the modern system with respect to order of terms. "For a similar situation in language, think of accents and the many different ways you can pronounce the same word." Could you be more specific as to what you mean?
- ahomescu1 11y agoI mean the writing is identical, but the pronounciation varies wildly.
- DonHopkins 11y agoIt's funny how the Germans and Dutch (rightfully) ridicule Americans for writing dates in middle-endian order like 9/11/2001, yet they say numbers with the decade flip "two and forty". That's just as ridiculous.
- wz1000 11y agoI think the way we do it is more natural. Numbers which have an infinite decimal expansion towards the right side of the decimal point are relatively much more common and useful compared to numbers which have an infinite decimal expansion towards the left. For example, you can write out e as 2.7182... However, if we were to flip this notation, ...2817.2, it isn't clear where to begin writing the number, if we read(and write) from left to write. With the regular representation, you write out the 'major' parts of the number first and then give out as many details as you want. You have the beginning of your string in mind. With a reversed system, you don't have the beginning but the end of the string in mind.
- Retra 11y agoAll you are pointing out is that mixing little-endian and big-endian may cause trouble. You're not saying anything about which of the two is better. Anyway, it doesn't matter what you think is 'more natural.' Computing in binary probably feels less natural to you, but nobody is going to stop making binary computers because of that.
- scentoni 11y agoSee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-adic_number https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-adic_number for an overview of the system of numbers that actually works this way, similar to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two's_complement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two's_complement with infinitely long registers.
- KeytarHero 11y agoYeah, but the way individual languages do numbers doesn't necessarily make sense. In French, 99 is read as "four-twenties and ten-plus-nine"