Maths Problem

[SaLiVa]

I remember during a Mechanics lesson, the first question my teacher asked us was:

"Do you think the whole number system is the only number system that exists today?"

After much discussion in our class, we said "No" without any real answer to the question.

The teacher replied that we were right and that there were other number systems such as the Binary number system, Complex numbers, etc.

Now the real question that was going through my mind at the time.

"Why are we limited to all of these numbers?"

"Why is the number 10, the number 10, and why is it such an important base number?"

"Why isn't the number 10 actually 11, 12, or 15?"

Like if I took 1 as 10, we wouldn't be calling Milli as 10^-3 because we'll end up having the same number. Is our number system a relative system of measurement?

This post is confusing at many points, but everything is coming out of thoughts that have been bothering me. Thoughts that themself are confused.

Please ask any further questions, they will help me clarify the question further.

[dreamz Veteran]

base 10 is probably the most common because humans have 10 fingers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_10

[raid517]

We started counting to ten, because way back in the day our fingers and toes were the only thing we had to count with. Other than that or system of mathematics is probably fairly arbitrary. There have been quite a few other counting systems throughout history, most notably perhaps the Mayans and the the Sumerians. The Mayans were probably ahead with their counting system. They used Zero. And Base 20, so that a 1 in the units, or multiplier column could be 1, 20, 400, 160,000, etc . . .Instead of million and billion, they had a special symbol for 23,040,000,000 called alau-tun

The only reason that can be explained for their interest in such accurate large numbers, is counting long periods of time. However this is chiefly because the experts remain baffled as to any other reason for such large numbers.

When the alau-tun multiplier is applied to the mayan long count it represents a period of over 63 million years! Again this seems a strange choice - other than if you assume that the Mayans thought that they had already, or needed to wait that long for something significant in their culture to happen, or if perahps it was used as some advance measure of astonomical time.

The Sumerians had quite an exotic system based on counts to 60, used in astronomical and other calculations. This system was imported and used by every Mediterranean nation that used astronomy, including the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians. We still use it to count time (minutes per hour), and angle (degrees).

These are only a few examples - but there are many others if you ever felt the orge to study the topic in any depth.

GJ

[Rob2687]

The Mayans must have unlocked the key to manipulating time or something.

[raid517]

Sorry, you appear to be in the wrong section. This is the science section. I think you want to be in Area 51. (I was going to say along side all the other kooks and cranks - but I am trying my best to be polite).

GJ

[ev0|]

Sorry, you appear to be in the wrong section. This is the science section. I think you want to be in Area 51. (I was going to say along side all the other kooks and cranks - but I am trying my best to be polite).

GJ

586571260[/snapback]

True. However this is neowin; we can expect the science section to be under constant assault as we will draw users from the home page who quick click to links and will post without due thought.