Is there a better way to count?

[PeteC]

I'm going to have to watch this more times to get my head wrapped around it. Perhaps if over age 50 that's impossible? Pete

We use a decimal system - based on the number 10 - to count. But is there a better way? The case for counting in 12s.


https://www.bbc.com/ideas/videos/is-the ... e/p06mdfkn

[RCer]

Count or measure?

[laphanphon]

Sounds silly and why? Not broke, don't fix it.

Multiples of ........ 10 ..... too easy ....nuff said.

[HHTel]

There are already several number systems around other than decimal:

Computers count in binary (base 2) 0,1,10,11 ......
Also used with computers, octal (base 8 ) 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,10,11 ........
And more such as hexadecimal (base 16) 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D,E,F,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,1A,1B .......

Do we really need another one which would have to get recognition throughout the world!

[HHTel]

Why does my base 8 turn into a 'cool imoji'?

[PeteC]

Why does my base 8 turn into a 'cool imoji'?

The system. You have to separate it with a space 8 )

[dtaai-maai]

Most of us Brits over 60 probably had difficulty getting used to not working in base 12, when the UK switched to 'decimalisation' in ... 1971(?). My father had a village store at the time, and I clearly remember how the old ladies used to just hand over their purses and say 'help yourself'!

!2 pennies in a shilling, half a crown = two shillings and sixpence, etc. - it must have been a nightmare for visiting Americans! But then again, you guys still use the Imperial (how ironic...) measurements for weight and distance, which probably doesn't make much sense at all.

In the UK, we're at a sort of weird half-way house with weights, where if you go to the supermarket everything is marked in grams, but if you go to local shops (if you can find one) and markets everything is in pounds and ounces. Go figure... literally! I was getting weighed regularly recently while having treatment, and was mildly offended when nurses kept asking me if I wanted kgs converted into lbs...

[dtaai-maai]

Oh, and another thing... I don't suppose kids learn their times tables by rote any more, but when we did, you always learned up to the 12 times table. Why not stop at 10, especially in the USA?

[laphanphon]

Probably because dozen (s) and a gross are multiples of 12.

[Dannie Boy]

Not to mention, 12 inches to a foot!!

[HHTel]

Most of us Brits over 60 probably had difficulty getting used to not working in base 12, when the UK switched to 'decimalisation' in ... 1971(?). My father had a village store at the time, and I clearly remember how the old ladies used to just hand over their purses and say 'help yourself'!

!2 pennies in a shilling, half a crown = two shillings and sixpence, etc. - it must have been a nightmare for visiting Americans! But then again, you guys still use the Imperial (how ironic...) measurements for weight and distance, which probably doesn't make much sense at all.

In the UK, we're at a sort of weird half-way house with weights, where if you go to the supermarket everything is marked in grams, but if you go to local shops (if you can find one) and markets everything is in pounds and ounces. Go figure... literally! I was getting weighed regularly recently while having treatment, and was mildly offended when nurses kept asking me if I wanted kgs converted into lbs...

We never had a base 12 numbering system. Just that 12 pence was a shilling, 12 inches to the foot not to mention all the biblical instances of 12.
We've always counted using a base 10 numbering system. Base 12 would mean 10 pence to the shilling, 10 inches to the foot. 18 shilling to the pound and so on. Counting in decimal is what we've all grown up with as has the rest of the world so unlikely to change.

[dtaai-maai]

^^Maths was never my strong point...