Humans use base 0x0A. Beep boop.
this post was submitted on 23 May 2025
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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.
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.
So we should say base 9+1? Or base ✋🤚 this many.
Hey mathematicians, is this a good universal way to communicate number bases? I think y'all would call it 1111111111₁ or something like that
Fun tangent, on my hands that would be 1023 because I count in binary on my fingers
Actually, I saw this meme before and I didn't notice the alien has four fingers. Do we use base 10 because we have that number of fingers??? Is there really a proof of that?
It's a good reason for us to use base 10, but in the past many people have not used base 10. However, the bases a society use often are somehow tied to something about the body. As an example (haven't looked it up for a while, sorry), I think there is/was a group that used base 8, and counted on the gaps between their fingers.
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?
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
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.
It's like language is missing one or two precise words to articulate the idea in better terms
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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Every base is base 10.
What about base 0? Checkmate, mathists.
Wouldn't that be base 1?
it would be 'what's a base?'
I think it's saying you can factor out the zero because it's zero and we're looking for "base sets" which for us 1's? Factoring every number system down to whatever their base set is equivalent to that original 1's relationship with zero?
It seems a little more esoteric than the practical reality that an alien might just count on it's digits which could be any base number, and we should understand that, particularly if it gets so bad on Earth we have to leave soon.
I haven't taken math in a very long time.
If the human was smart he would say that we use base 22. Then everyone would understand.
yeah but to be fair how smart can an astronaut be
Hey everyone! We have this skyscraper sized tank of hydrogen and oxidizer! Who wants to sit on top when we light it on fire?
oh that looks fun! I'll go!
... what's an oxidizer?
In Chinese/Japanese, there's 四 rocks in both base 10, and base 4. (8 rocks would be 二四 in base 4).
I think the concept of "base" is easier to understand when you include a numeral for the highest base (10 = 十, 20 =二十).
Of course, arabic numerals are more concise, using position to imply meaning (21 = 二十一).
Doesn't base 4 only go up to 三? Like binary is base 2 and only has 0 and 1. 四 would be base 5.
they already said that they have numerals for the base they use. from what I understood, basically imagine we use base 10 but have a numeral for it, let's say X. our numbers go like this:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, X, X1,X2, X3, X4, X5, X6, X7, X8, X9, 2X, 2X1, 2X2, etc...
so i imagine it's similarwhen they use base 4:
1, 2, 3, 4, 41, 42, 43, 24, 241, 242, 243, 34...
mind that i have no knowledge on this and I'm only interpreting what i understood from the comment above.
But the extra numeral that you're representing with X would be base 11. It's like how hexadecimal uses A-F for 10-15. But the range of numerals still ends at 15 instead of 16 because the 0 exists.
you're conflating number systems. in this number system the positioning doesn't assign value. that's like saying Roman numerals are base 1001 because M.
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I think when I first saw this comic, the punchline was "what's a four?" which I find funnier.
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