Oh. Herp. I tend to not recognize hex now unless there's a "0x" in front of it... which of course gives away the joke.
Almost anything can be a valid number, it's only a matter of what its meaning is to the system you're working in. For example the chances of finding a shiny pokemon are 1/8192, or 1/0x2000. Just like how 68,451,318,444 is a valid number in base 10, it just probably doesn't mean anything in most circumstances. lol
And i guess 9999999999999999999999999999999..... is valid. Why is 999999999999 and so on the highest digit in some computer systems?
Because if they add 1 to make it 10000000000000000000000000000 etc. They'd have another reason to count even further
To a certain extent it's completely irrelevant what base we use to count in, they all work out the same in the end anyway. Though there are still distinct advantages to certain bases depending on their intended use. Probably the most famous being Binary (aka base 2) which is perfect for computers because of it's on/off, yes/no nature. I can't really see any particular advantage to the base 10 system other than how common it is, I don't buy the whole 'we have 10 fingers' thing because really how often do people count with their fingers, but I guess wide acceptance is just as valid a reason as any really. As for base 12, well I'm a numbers guy so there is a little part of me that wishes everyone used the dozenal/duodecimal system. I also tend to agree with the argument that maths would be easier to learn if it were taught in base 12. But the rational side of me hesitates at the thought of how much initial confusion there would be in transitioning. [video=youtube;U6xJfP7-HCc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6xJfP7-HCc[/video]
I vote we all change to Base 1, anyone who agrees can call me on 1111111111111111111111111111111 :Trollestia: It's not exactly 30, but base 36 is not uncommon these days, I can't remember it's proper name but it is sometimes called alphdecimal. It uses the digits 0-9 along with letters A-Z, it's mainly used as a convenient way to store information in a small package, I believe URL shorteners work with this system.
I just typed a whole big long post and it got deleted. ;____; Basically I called the imperial system crap as well as metric time. We'd have to make new scales under dozenal (for instance, water would boil at decimal 144 and freeze at 0). However, the one issue I had was it skews ages and years because of being a higher base. No one has lived over a dozenal century being 144 years (though if you are a literal believer of the Bible, that's a different story). No one has reached 100 years old. It would be an interesting goal for science if we did convert to break that barrier. Also, I try to post more numbers later if I have time. You know, 60 seconds to the minute, 60 minutes to the hour, 24 hours to the day, etc, etc. Nothing is ridiculous. If you want to close your mind off to new ideas, that's your business. I think it would be wise to play with a lot of these new ideas. Chances are we might like some of them.
Dozenal: I think its decent and practical. Pretty annoying to get used to, but I'd manage should it ever be implemented. I already use base 2, 8, 10, and 16 so getting another won't mean too much. Decimal Time: Please. Yes.
What do you count with your fingers though, and how high do you go? I could be wrong, but I'm willing to bet it's only very basic. Once you begin to go past 20 you have to start remembering how many lots of tens you have anyway.
I can count to 31 on one hand and do so regularly. Is that strange? Anyway I think the point is that yes, most people do learn to count on their fingers first because it's easy to visualize. If base 12 were officially adopted, then schoolchildren would just be taught a new way to count on their fingers so that it looks like they have twelve of something instead of ten. Human brains, especially young ones, are malleable enough that I think such a thing could catch on. The problem, though, happens when old stubborn people who grew up on tens get forced to adopt a new system. Let's not forget that most people (in this country at least... rofl) don't know advanced enough mathematics to recognize why 10 is such a bad number. XD
