Re: Vocab #5

Nik Taylor wrote:
>Christian Thalmann wrote:
> > Eight is a nice number, about the same order of magnitude as our ten,
> > but it divides nicer: 2 x 2 x 2 rather than 2 x 5.  Most importantly:
> > It's not ten!  Is there anything more boring than ten-based systems?
> > ;-)
>
>I dunno, 10 is, IMO, a bit better than 8, as it can be divided into
>fifths and (with nonrepeating decimals) powers of five in addition to 2
>and powers of 2, whereas 8 can only be divided by 2 and powers of 2.
>
>But even better is 12.  :-)
Sometimes I've toyed with the idea of base 6. It's got pretty much the same
divisional strengths as base 12, and, what's more, you can use the fingers
on one hand to represent the units and those of the others to represent the
sextets! AFAIK, no real-world culture uses base 6, but perhaps the Kalana
(the speakers of Kalini Sapak) ought to ...

                                                  Andreas

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