this post was submitted on 24 May 2024
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Every base is base 10 (lemmy.world)
submitted 5 months ago by realitista to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 19 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

we'd only be able to represent bases for numbers with one digit though because what does base 15+1 mean? the 15 could be in any base higher than 5. the clearest way would probably be to just represent it with lines or something "base ||||||||||"

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

It's only 15 to us because we use base 10 (or 9+1). Like how we have 4 through 9, but that aliens in the picture only count up to 3.

In the case of a mismatch, the culture using the higher base would just translate down (Base 21+1 in the given scenario).

Single units would probably be the simplest method, but also wildly impractical as the base gets higher. You really want to count each digit just to figure out someone uses Base 100?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

that's fair, translating down is a good idea

[–] harmsy 14 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Base 16 is typically represented with letters being used as the extra numerals, so it would end up being F+1. Problem solved.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Base 16

Do you mean Base G?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago

All your base are belong to us

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

What the fuck is G?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

It would be the digit representing a value of 16 (i.e. the amount of lines here: |||| |||| |||| ||||), if you're talking about it from the perspective of a number system with base 17 (|||| |||| |||| |||| |) or higher.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (2 children)

what about numbers larger than 16?

[–] harmsy 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

There are still 20 more letters that can be used as stand-ins. Things will get interesting if you try to go past Base 36, though.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

this is exactly what i was trying to get at

[–] uranibaba 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Make up a new symbol?

[–] harmsy 1 points 5 months ago

Or use ancient scripts like Phoenician or Glagolitic.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (2 children)

We've got base 64, though it doesn't quite follow the convention of starting with digits and following up with letters:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base64

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

Base /+1 lol

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

what about numbers after 64? comment OP and i were trying to come up with a universal rule which we did in his response to my first comment

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

wait until you find out about hexadecimal systems. It turns out we already have words for referring to numbers lol.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

i know about hexadecimal, but what if you need to refer to a base larger than 16? i'm not saying it isn't possible to create symbols for every number, i'm saying if you have to describe your base with more than one digit, you encounter a problem of not knowing what base that multi-digit number is in.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

well no, i know, i'm just saying that's it's not really that big of a problem, unless you're using octal, and you skill issue.

You should design base systems to be independent of each other, and hex does a really good job at this, because often times it's prepended with 0x to imply hex.