this post was submitted on 07 Dec 2023
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Asklemmy

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[โ€“] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago (10 children)

The metric system should be redone in base 12, and RPN should be the norm for teaching arithmetic.

[โ€“] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

See elsewhere in the thread, but basically because of the ease of dividing whole numbers.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

twelve phalanges makes four digits, use the thumb to count. Also prettier.

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I've been fully on board with base 12 for years. Didn't know about RPN until this post. I'm convinced.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Base 16 is superior and once you learn binary math, easier to divide and multiply.

[โ€“] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

What base 12 gives you is a lot of common divisors: 2, 3, 4, and 6. Base 10 only has 2 and 5. Base 16 only has 2, 4, 8.

The practical upshot of this is that you can divide things evenly in more ways. Particularly when wanting to divide a board into thirds. Having 12 inches to a foot is actually helpful there, though it falls apart as soon as you get larger.

[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Base 16 is great when you're interacting with a computer, but aside from that, not much. Only being divisible by 2 is kind of a pain in the real world.

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This is incorrect, and you don't understand why base 12 is useful. However for binary operations, hex is great. But not for general counting.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I'm not experienced with RPN but at a glance think there's a solid argument for it.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Both are easily countable on fingers using your thumb and counting up the segments for base 12 and adding the pads for base sixteen. You can reasonably count to 144(gross) or 256 using both hands to create a two digit dozenal or hexadecimal number.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Good points, 12 seems to be superior and I've changed my opinion.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

RPN is a gateway to LISP

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yes. Also everyone should be required to learn how to use a slide rule before they ever get given a calculator - I think that seeing how the numbers relate to each other on a physical device can help students conceptualize them better.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If we were supposed to use base 10, weโ€™d have 10 figures and 10 toes!

/s

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You have 12 finger joints which you can count with the thumb.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I have 2 balls so binary is more in line with my interests.

[โ€“] JohnDClay 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You'd need to move all numbers to base 12 too for it to be worth it.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Well, let's get on that, and get some CRISPR stuff going so people grow an extra finger on each hand. Stupid evolution, we have to fix so many mistakes.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yes, BIPM, this user here.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

woah RPN is awesome