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Zirnike t1_iwyfedp wrote

The human stared at the navigation database. Thiun recognized the look as one of puzzlement. It was distressingly common in humans, considering they made it to a different star system.

"Don't you have a numerical catalog with spacial coordinates? I can translate your zero point to ours easily enough, but this list of names isn't helping." She brushed back her hair from her eyes.

Thiun started to weave his two primary manipulator tentacles together in an expression of humor, then stopped himself. One of the few things humans were at an average level on was learning what they called "body language", and he did not wish to seem insulting.

"That is our numerical database. They are listed in order of proximity, but perhaps this might assist in comprehension." He reached out to the secondary console and filtered by order of discovery, with the coordinates listed after.

Hedy looked again. This time her expression was new to it. Thiun checked his external link, and found a single raised eyebrow meant the discovery of something odd. It allowed it's secondary manipulator tentacle to express a questioning demeanor.

"Ok, let me just confirm something. I know you're a scientist, so you're good at math?" Thiun nodded, that being a surprisingly common species indicator of agreement. "Would you mind multiplying 643 by 896? Manually, I mean."

It's own manipulators "raising their eyebrows", Thiun pulled out his tablet and started writing. A few minutes later, it exclaimed "576123."

"You're off by five." Hedy cocked her head. "Try me."

"Very well. 355 times 763."

"270865." Came back seconds later. She had done it without a writing surface. In her head. It typed in the numbers into his calculator. It took him longer to confirm the answer than it had for her to give it.

All 15 eyes swiveled to focus on the human. "How? No offense, but your capabilities are quite limited compared to ours, but I've only seen that kind of mental mathematics done as a parlor trick, by someone with perfect recall."

She shook her head. "I can't believe you made it out of the sail age like this..." She muttered distractedly. "correct me if I'm wrong, but this is the number 74, correct?" Thiun's glance showed that number hadn't shown up on screen. She wrote out a quick series of symbols, with the furthest along being a "?". "I don't know what that symbol looks like, but I know there is one."

Three eyes looked at the tablet, quickly followed by 8 others. The remaining stared at the human scientist as a threat response - his biology literally would not let him look away.

"I don't understand... You said this was the first time you've seen our databases, but you figured it out that quickly?"

She stared back. "I finally have something to trade, it seems. A positional numerical system." Again she brushed her hair out of her eyes. "How did you manage spaceflight with base 8 ROMAN NUMERALS?"

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UnusualDisturbance t1_iwykmn7 wrote

programmer here. base 8 roman numerals sent cold shivers down my spine.

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Zirnike t1_iwyzd2f wrote

I'm an engineer. It was painful to even think about.

How integrals? Shudder

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Graveyard_01 t1_ix5u8us wrote

Astrophysics major here. How the frick do they even work with lightyears. Like… geez, imagine writing the gravitational constant in Roman numerals

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Zirnike t1_ix5ukeh wrote

"is that 'e,' for order of magnitude or is it a number?"

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Graveyard_01 t1_ix5x70g wrote

depends on which e u mean, there is a e for natural log (which might be the e u mean), an e for eccentricity of an orbit, and an e used by computers for scientific notation; 10e+2 means 1000 (and which also might be what u mean).

Edit: 1e-3 means 0.001 Edit again: self note, don’t use - as line breaks

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Zirnike t1_ix5xvf9 wrote

Natural log related e generally has a superscript, but I take your point.

Oh, goddess, now I'm trying to figure out irrational and imaginary numbers in Roman numerals.

MAKE IT STOP!!!

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Graveyard_01 t1_ixfawrg wrote

Additions of numbers bigger than 50 are already horror enough

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DrBlowtorch t1_iy5s6hq wrote

Highschool Student in AP Calc here. How the hell did they manage anything at all with a numerical system designed by Satan himself.

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R3D3-1 t1_ixycrld wrote

I am less concerned with integrals and more with how they managed to implement any form of digital computation system without figuring out a proper numbering system XD

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MEOW_MAM t1_iwywgfu wrote

Base 8???

Nah fuck them no more peace for those dipshit

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mack0409 t1_iwzvody wrote

Base8 is probably about as usable as base10, but base12 is way better than either.

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MEOW_MAM t1_iwzzlf2 wrote

I've had one of my buddies praise the shit out of base12 non stop for the last motherfucking months and it's driving me insane. I do not see why it's supposedly so good.

I mean, base10 increases in digits each 10^n times, it makes sense and is continues. Meanwhile base12? It's like base10 but I also have to not forget the extra 2. It's just more confusing.

I'm serious, do tell me why folks think base12 is so good because it's making me lose my mind.

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RoyalGarbage t1_ix01uwn wrote

Base 12 is considered more useful because it has more factors: It’s divisible by 2, 3, 4 and 6 instead of just by 2 and 5. That doesn’t make it any easier for somebody who’s used base 10 their whole life, though.

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Duck_Giblets t1_ixkjtdt wrote

Needs division by zero to be of any reasonable and realistic use.

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Ancient_Condition96 t1_iyb2ahk wrote

Everyone else when they encounter fractions: Lets solve them to a decimal form so that we can actually use the number.

Americans: lets leave it at that, you don't need to learn more math do you? No just leave it as it is, no need to complicate it more...

​

Yeah I'm annoyed with the american's use of fractions, worse they use them right along side imperial measurement units... ugh every time I see something like "15/18 inches" I feel the need to scream.

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mack0409 t1_ix0m4bp wrote

There's not a modern society that can handle switching their counting system from one base to another, and a person that tries is basically just trying to learn to count all over again, except they already know how to count "wrong." Base2, base12, and base60 all have a few things in common, they're all highly composite numbers and are used in wide scale applications. Base12 is "better" than base10 pretty much only based on 12 being highly composite. Though if you look at the English language "twelve" doesn't exactly say "2+10" the way thirteen says "3+10"

Another thing to consider, when counting in Base(n), "n" is always rendered as "10" If something is actually in base12 then ten would usually be rendered as "A" or "a" and eleven would be rendered as "B" or "b"

Base12 isn't going to be better to use in pretty much any modern person's life, but if a hypothetical new society emerged independent from our, base6 or base12 would almost certainly be more useful than base10.

Though using base6 can be pretty easy for most people; you can think of one hand as the "ones" place (is usually use my right hand) and the other hand as the "sixes" place. count on your fingers as normal until the "ones hand" is full, when you reach five. Then you add one by closing the "ones hand" and opening one finger on the "sixes hand". If you repeat this (and have all your fingers) you should be able to count to thirty-five on just your hands! Doing this might also help you notice that thirty-five renders as "55" when written in base6.

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SomeoneRandom5325 t1_iwzbyi1 wrote

How is it even possible to be off by 5 when you can just check the last digit and immediately know that it's wrong

plus base 8 roman numerals would probably look something like this:

A, AA, AB, B, BA, BAA, AC, C

where A=1, B=4 and C=8 with the rules of roman numerals that you know and love preserved

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RoyalGarbage t1_ix024h2 wrote

Now imagine that B still equals 5 and there is no C.

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SomeoneRandom5325 t1_ix1rd1a wrote

This system looks so illogical for base 8 it's probably not base 8 at all

If it is I legitimately wonder how they even got to space

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couldathrowaway t1_iwzio7a wrote

This one should be atop the page when sorting by controversial. You have officially submitted a valid reason for which to start a war with aliens or otherwise ruin diplomatic relationships towards. I'll tale binary any day. But hey, good story

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y6ird t1_iwyjny5 wrote

This one is my favourite :)

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Spare_Confidence1727 t1_ix19gjw wrote

Coder here and I am still wondering how their ships held together let alone fly with their mathematics being base 8 never mind the military part of my brain has spoken kill them all

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Zirnike t1_ix1le1c wrote

I think base 8 isn't much of an issue. Might actually be an advantage if we "spoke" b8, considering the structuring of our computers.

The real question is, what the bloody hell does the system architecture of a computer running on roman numerals look like? 😀 Good thing the aliens are smart.

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Speciesunkn0wn t1_ixbk3v8 wrote

...What the genuine fuck. Go post this to r/HFY and break more brains. I want to see more of this and the interactions as they transition.

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