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Every base is base 10 (lemmy.world)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (22 children)

Huh, that's a good point. A better universal naming system would be something like "Base x+1", with x being one integer lower than 10. So humans would use Base 9+1, and the alien would use Base 3+1.

*This has been on my mind all day and the more I think about it, the more obvious it becomes how fundamentally terrible the name "Base-10" is. How did this never occur to the people who coined the term? Even the system I suggested is flawed as it's still trying to incorporate the same bad logic.

A better system would be something like Base 9, stopping shy of the respective 10 in each system, or if it needs to be clarified, Base 9+0, as 0 is the extra digit in the first place, not 10.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (18 children)

we'd only be able to represent bases for numbers with one digit though because what does base 15+1 mean? the 15 could be in any base higher than 5. the clearest way would probably be to just represent it with lines or something "base ||||||||||"

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago (12 children)

Base 16 is typically represented with letters being used as the extra numerals, so it would end up being F+1. Problem solved.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (2 children)

what about numbers larger than 16?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (2 children)

We've got base 64, though it doesn't quite follow the convention of starting with digits and following up with letters:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base64

[–] hex 4 points 5 months ago

Base /+1 lol

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

what about numbers after 64? comment OP and i were trying to come up with a universal rule which we did in his response to my first comment

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

There are still 20 more letters that can be used as stand-ins. Things will get interesting if you try to go past Base 36, though.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

this is exactly what i was trying to get at

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Make up a new symbol?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Or use ancient scripts like Phoenician or Glagolitic.

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