Comment on Every base is base 10

• marcos@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Why not?

  Why not use a large prime as the base?

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  • drcobaltjedi@programming.dev ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Honnest answer, 1/2 in DEC is 0.5 easy. 1/2 in base 13 is .6666666666… Easy but ugly. You want a base that has comon fractions easily represented by decimals. People like dozenal since many fractions are easily represented. 1/2 = 0.6, 1/3 = 0.4, 1/4 = 0.3

    I’m personally a fan of hexidecimal partly because I’m a programmer and partially because it can be halved several times

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    • unreasonabro@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      it’s almost like you’d have to use a different notation system to express a different base…

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    • bisby@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Is 1/2 in base 13 not 0.65?

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      • oktoberpaard@feddit.nl ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        No, because the 5 in your answer is thinking in decimal. 0.05 is not 50% of 0.1 in base 13.

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  • SmoothLiquidation@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Ahh yes, let’s introduce floating point rounding errors for one half. Sounds fun.

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  • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Lets use base Pi and put an end to that infinite digit bullshit.

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  • whotookkarl@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Why use a fixed base? Or why not use an irrational number like e, the most efficient base

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    • marcos@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I still think some largish prime, like 37 hits the perfect spot of being usable enough for people to use, but still useless enough to stop almost everybody from learning any advanced math.

      But yeah, making integrals non-representable is a serious trade-off that deserves consideration.

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