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The astronaut should've told the alien "I use base 22."
this post was submitted on 23 May 2025
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I like the little detail, that the alien has 10 fingers.
The alien in the weird suit has 22 fingers
Every number system is base 10.
Binary is base 1+1.
Ternary is base 2+1.
Octal is base 7+1.
Decimal is base 9+1.
Duodecimal is base B+1.
Hexadecimal is base F+1.
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(13 replies)
It's a language issue. We say 10 because we don't have a single digit symbol to represent 10. If a alien with 20 fingers came we wouldn't recognized their symbols for anything bigger than 9. Base 4 creatures don't use 4 because after 3 comes 10 for them.
Base 16 is used all the time in computer science. The symbols for 9+ aren't arcane or unrecognizable it's 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F. It's often written with an 0X in front to indicate hexadecimal or something like 'h for hex and 'd for decimal.
Examples:
- 'h7 = 'd7
- 'hC = 'd12
- 'hF = 'd15
- 'h7CF = 'd(7 × 16^2^) + (12 × 16^1^) + (15 × 16^0^) = 'd1792 + 'd192 + 'd15 = 'd1999
Yeah I know but base16 creatures would use 10 to express 16 not "G"
We wouldn't recognize the aliens symbols for 0-9 at first either.
should interstellar contact ever actually happen, maths would be the first (and for a long while, probably the only) thing we'd actually be able to communicate in.
What do you mean they don't use A B C D E for 10 11 12 13 13 15?
What do you mean? X is 10. 1 symbol.
Considering this, for us humans base-10 is base-X
For the four fingered aliens base-10 is base-4. But they don't call it base 4 because they don't use 4 like we don't use X. They say base-10 because for their language it's how they say 4. And that applies for all bases.
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(5 replies)
all your base are belong to us
somebody set us up the bomb
Humans use base 0x0A. Beep boop.
Every base is base 10.
What about base 0? Checkmate, mathists.
I only see bleem rocks though. Where are people getting 3 and 4 from?
i only recognize bleem as two possible things. dropout.tv's Brennan Lee Mulligan or the company that emulated playstation games on the dreamcast, got sue by sony and won, setting the precedent that emulation is a legal process, but folded under the weight of the lawsuit anyway.
Doesn't matter how many digits you use. The first number after the last possible single digit is 10. If the first digit tier is 0 and the second is 1 it means it's the number after you have used all the possible digits to express a number with a single digit number. Guess it's harder to explain.
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(1 replies)
I personally like base infinity
Agree! I don't know why other people don't get how convenient it is to have a distinct character for every single number imaginable.
Single digit numbers always
Every base is base 10 than except base 1.
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