Re: Base-12 logic
Wolfspirit, on host 216.13.40.214
Thursday, February 22, 2001, at 13:21:58
Re: Base-12 logic posted by Travholt on Thursday, February 22, 2001, at 07:54:31:
> I think the biggest trouble with changing base would be all the adjustments you'd have to do to your mind and everywhere else. [...] > > - You'd be saying "If I live to be 84...", and water would boil at 84 degrees Celcius. >
No, in retrospective the boiling point of water would still be at 100°, because a round 100°C in itself was the original definition of the boiling point. :-) See, if we had "always had" a duodecimal system of measurement, then the Celsius degree divisions between ice melting and water vaporizing (from 0°C to 100°C) would simply have been made finer, going by twelths instead of tenths.
> - Year 2000 would be 1455 years ahead - we'd be living in year 11T9. > > - But would we have Windows 11T8? >
Interesting idea. If this were the standard, then most likely we'd become culturally conditioned to think of eonic ages, such as a Millennium, in terms of 1728 (12 x 144) actual decimal years. And you know what? We'd also have a good excuse to re-embrace the good ole Imperial system of length measurement in inches and feet. I'd dig that part (as long as the stupid "5280 feet to a mile" part gets redefined according to new metrification rules involving units of 12. :-)
Wolfspirit
|