Something on a podcast made me think about base twelve numbers. In some ways, they're very attractive - twelve having prime factors of 2 (twice) and three, meaning it's divisible by 2, 3, 4 and 6, instead of just 2 and five like ten.
I find that there is actually a society promoting it, the Dozenal Society of America. www.dozenal.org
They use the rather dull 'dek' and 'el' for ten and eleven,.
However, I feel that they have erred in thinking that the numbers ten and eleven need new names. They don't. Just use ten and eleven. What we do need are two new symbols for their written representation. I don't think anyone's come up with anything really good for those yet - The Dozenal society seems to use an greek Chi or an upside down 2 for ten and an upside down 3 for eleven.
They also have an article on pronunciation, but that's just dreadful. Lots of poor-sounding words that need to be memorised.
I'd like to propose a different counting system for the dozenal number system:
one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, dozen
onedeen, twodeen, thirdeen, fourdeen, fifdeen, sixdeen, sevendeen, eighdeen, ninedeen, tendeen, elevendeen, twendy
twendy-one, twendy-two,..... twendy-nine,, twendy-ten, twendy-eleven, thirdy
thirdy....
fordy...
fifdy...
sixdy...
sevendy...
eighdy..
ninedy...
tendy...
elevendy, elevndy-one, ... elevendy-eleven, gross.
one gross and one, one gross and two, ...
two gross...
...
eleven gross...
grousand (= dozen gross = one thousand seven hundred and twenty eight)
one grousand and one...
...
..
dillion (= grousand grousand = 1,000,000 (dozenal) or 2,985,984 (decimal)
...
...
billion (= grousand * dillion)
What, you ask? Isn't billion already used in the decimal system? Well, yes it is, but in two different ways (thousand million or million million). And it's so big no-ones understand ihow big it is anyway. :)
Go on - see if you can count in dozenal using this scheme. I bet you can after five minutes or less.
And, of course, this have the great advantage that it has the number "elevendy-one" in it.
There are the dozenal numbers to name next (the number to the right of the dozenal point). Perhaps one dozenth, one grossenth, one grousenth
I think I may have spent more time and thought on this than I should have. :)
Anyone else for a dozenal revolution? When would be good symbols for ten and eleven?
I find that there is actually a society promoting it, the Dozenal Society of America. www.dozenal.org
They use the rather dull 'dek' and 'el' for ten and eleven,.
However, I feel that they have erred in thinking that the numbers ten and eleven need new names. They don't. Just use ten and eleven. What we do need are two new symbols for their written representation. I don't think anyone's come up with anything really good for those yet - The Dozenal society seems to use an greek Chi or an upside down 2 for ten and an upside down 3 for eleven.
They also have an article on pronunciation, but that's just dreadful. Lots of poor-sounding words that need to be memorised.
I'd like to propose a different counting system for the dozenal number system:
one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, dozen
onedeen, twodeen, thirdeen, fourdeen, fifdeen, sixdeen, sevendeen, eighdeen, ninedeen, tendeen, elevendeen, twendy
twendy-one, twendy-two,..... twendy-nine,, twendy-ten, twendy-eleven, thirdy
thirdy....
fordy...
fifdy...
sixdy...
sevendy...
eighdy..
ninedy...
tendy...
elevendy, elevndy-one, ... elevendy-eleven, gross.
one gross and one, one gross and two, ...
two gross...
...
eleven gross...
grousand (= dozen gross = one thousand seven hundred and twenty eight)
one grousand and one...
...
..
dillion (= grousand grousand = 1,000,000 (dozenal) or 2,985,984 (decimal)
...
...
billion (= grousand * dillion)
What, you ask? Isn't billion already used in the decimal system? Well, yes it is, but in two different ways (thousand million or million million). And it's so big no-ones understand ihow big it is anyway. :)
Go on - see if you can count in dozenal using this scheme. I bet you can after five minutes or less.
And, of course, this have the great advantage that it has the number "elevendy-one" in it.
There are the dozenal numbers to name next (the number to the right of the dozenal point). Perhaps one dozenth, one grossenth, one grousenth
I think I may have spent more time and thought on this than I should have. :)
Anyone else for a dozenal revolution? When would be good symbols for ten and eleven?