• Gleddified
    link
    fedilink
    152 years ago

    Base 12 is way more logical than base 10, I bet aliens would think we’re stupid for counting in base 10 just because we have 10 fingers, my opinion on this is infallible fight me

      • @dfc09@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        82 years ago

        12 is more divisible than 10. 10 can only be cut into 5’s and 2’s, 12 has 2, 3, 4, and 6.

        • AzureKevin
          link
          fedilink
          English
          62 years ago

          Similar reason why 360 deg is a full circle and time is kept in 12s and 60s.

          • JC1
            link
            fedilink
            92 years ago

            Works with base 12 too, look: 10 100 1000 10000 100000 etc.

          • @candybrie@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            4
            edit-2
            2 years ago

            That would be the case for any base system. Do you know what a base system is? It’s basically how many values before you go to the next place. So base 2, or binary, is 0 and 1. Counting goes 0, 1, 10, 11, 100, … Base 16 is generally 0-F. Counting goes 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E, 1F, 20,…

          • @WaterSword@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            32 years ago

            The way base 12 would work is that you’d add 2 characters and you would write “12” as 10. Which looks really confusing because we’re all used to base 10. If you were then to do 1010 in base 12 (so in base10 that would be 1212) you’d get 100 (144 in base10) so this still stands whatever base you use.

          • @dfc09@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            32 years ago

            True! And that’s probably why we use base 10, also we have 10 fingers. But that’s usually the argument for base 12. I think we do ok using it in just certain cases, like time and inches.

    • @UnculturedSwine@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      72 years ago

      Base 12 is as arbitrary as base 10 and we don’t know what aliens would think nor should we care. Base 16 makes more sense because it is 2x2x2x2 instead of 2x2x3

    • @mv777711@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      5
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      The Egyptians and Babylonians counted in base 12. They did so by counting each section of the fingers on one hand with their thumb (4 fingers, 3 sections each = 12).

      • @Hypersapien@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        12 years ago

        From what I understand they used base 60. They counted each finger section on one hand with each of the fingers on the other (5x12)