Well any system that's a power of 2 (base8, base16) would be a good combination nowadays as it works well with binary, base10 is problematic because of the 1/3rrds and the rounding errors.
Anyway hex would probably be a good choice for humans as it doesn't get too verbose with moderate numbers.
Since we can't even change the silly keyboard layout that we have for 100 years, I don't think that a number migration could happen without nuclear holocaust as a catalyst
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Reply to: Decimals
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Previously on "Decimals"
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The Phsychlo's used base eleven.
But then again, they had six fingers on the grasping hand.
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I'm hard pressed to find a species on the planet who have been luckier than humans.Originally posted by EternalOptimist View Postwould we have been luckier as a species if we had eight or twelve or some other number ?
Except, the dolphins maybe? - and they don't have any fingers
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In my first computing job I had to learn hexadecimal which came as a shock seeing as I'm a complete numpty when it comes to maths.
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It's not a species thing. The Bablylonians (and Sumerians? Phonecians?) used base 60. Others have been used too.
Edit: Wikipedia gives other examples.Last edited by RichardCranium; 1 September 2009, 09:34.
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Decimals
Being IT techies, we all understand binary and we all know that we use decimal because we have ten digits on our hands.
But is base 10 a good system to use ? would we have been luckier as a species if we had eight or twelve or some other number ?
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