Dozenal system - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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By Plaro
#14144335
What is Dozenal System? I guess it is time for some little googling.

Edit:
What will be the advantage of such a system? Why bother changing the current system to this one?
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By Siberian Fox
#14146144
The number 12 might have advantages over the number 10 in being considered a more mathematically perfect or useful number, but there is an important physical reason why the decimal system is never going away...

People have 10 fingers.

Teaching a child a number system based on 10 is easier for that reason. Counting on fingers is something that a duodecimal system cannot ever compete with. It's the reason the decimal system came to be in the first place.
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By Soixante-Retard
#14146148
Siberian Fox wrote:People have 10 fingers.

On one hand is 4 fingers and a thumb. Each of the four fingers has 3 phalanxes to it. 3x4 = 12. So we could count "dozenally" using the phalanxes of our fingers.

[youtube]U6xJfP7-HCc[/youtube]


This post should not be construed as support for a dozenal system of counting.
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By killim
#14146607
Basic mathematics, which means addition and subtraction are far easier with the decimal system. That was the reason why it replaced the dozenal system in the first place.
By Social_Critic
#14146612
When I visited Myanmar they used a base 3 (trinary?) currency. It was a real pain in the behind. The Burmese told me it been ordered by superstitious dictator who thought 3 was his lucky number.
By Sithsaber
#14146875
killim wrote:Basic mathematics, which means addition and subtraction are far easier with the decimal system. That was the reason why it replaced the dozenal system in the first place.



Some might say that is just due to how ingrained the decimal system is in the world. Teaching base 12 from the onset and changing how we count instead of pulling out the metric system in France might have been...

Okay frankly i see no real reason to change how we count, i just like the rule of cool. But when the Tentacle beasts of Shapdoro 9 come knocking, it would be practical to have a system in place not dependent on the archaic connection between the number of fingers and how we count.
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By killim
#14147371
The advantage of the decimal system is the zero ;)
At least in Europe we had the dozenal system and the whole measurement-culture around it. The problem is that -as mentioned earlier- it is far easier to make basic calculations within the decimal system with zero.
By Sithsaber
#14147411
Well in the dozenal system you'd still have a zero, except it would appear after every 12 instead of after every ten. Ten and eleven would receive new symbols
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By Nets
#14165971
Basic mathematics, which means addition and subtraction are far easier with the decimal system. That was the reason why it replaced the dozenal system in the first place.


Why is base 10 any easier than base n? Granted, conditional on being conditioned in base 10 for your whole life it is the easiest, but mathematically why is it easier than base 12?
By Sithsaber
#14166230
Yesterday i made a dozenal multiplication sytstem for kicks; once you get used to it it is not so bad. Frankly using America as an example of educational reform is never a good idea.
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