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Re: measuring systems (was: Selenites)

From:Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>
Date:Monday, September 28, 1998, 6:04
Charles wrote:
> I'm wondering if base 12 or 6 or 20 have special conlang properties, > useful enough so as to challenge base 10?
Sure. W. probably uses a base 24 system (I'm wondering whether to revert to 12). Twelve is divisible by 2, 3, 4 and 6 - all common numbers. Dividing into 5 yields an unwieldy repeating fraction (.2497... in duodecimal notation), but 1/5 is a less common fraction than 1/3 or 1/4 (respectively .4 and .3) -- If God had meant for us to use the metric system, there would've been 10 disciples - anonymous http://www.crosswinds.net/orlando/~nik/ ICQ #: 18656696 AOL screen-name: NikTailor