#the way base12 works is that we have a few extra digits between 9 and 10 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

secrettreestuffidk · 29 days

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you ever think about how pretty much the only reason we use base10 is because we have 10 fingers and if everyone had 6 fingers on each hand we'd use base12 and never even think a thing of it and also math would be pretty much better in every way?

#i think for this september's existential crisis i'm gonna become a base12 truther #and bc i know everyone on this website is math illiterate so to clarify:#the way base12 works is that we have a few extra digits between 9 and 10 #so to count we go:#0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 X Y #so X = 10 and Y = 11 #then '10' = 12 #so the next step of counting goes:#10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 1X 1Y #(i know this looks insane to you but the only reason for that is because you are used to base 10 i promise this makes sense #if you throw away everything you know and come at it with fresh eyes)#so anyways in this case '11' = 13. '19' = 21. 1X = 22. 1Y = 23 #and '20' = 24 #bc the tens column is not the tens column it's actually the twelves column #so each [number] in the second column does not mean 'add [this many] 10s to this' it means 'add [this many] 12s to this'#and this would not be tricky at higher numbers bc in base12 twelve is not counted as 'ten and two' it's just its own thing #in fact it would be harder to multiply by tens bc 10 would be the equivalent of like. 8 here.#it's not its own thing (ten) it's actually 'twelve minus two'#to count by tens goes '0 Y 18 26 34 42 50' and '50' is of course 10x6 in this case so it equals 60 in base10 #not hard #there's a pattern to it.#but it's not as easy as counting by 12s #anyways we already have base12 systems and i like them they are very easy to divide #it's only harder than base10 bc arabic numerals are base10 so it's harder to depict base12 logically in a base10 system #hours are base 12. inches to feet are base 12 #anyways this post is legally classified as scifi and/or speculative fiction #or. fuck. it's not even fictional #this is how math would work in a different system #sci-nonfi #speculative nonfiction

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