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#11
06-29-2012, 02:41 PM
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In listening to the Tom Lehrer song "New Math", I started wondering...
PNQ: Aside from base-10 and base-2, are any other bases actually used by anyone. I mean of the bases from 2 through 10. Sure, sometimes we use something akin to base-12, but only in an abstract sense. Schoolhouse Rock proposed two new symbols (dek and el) to represent "ten" and "eleven" in a base-12 counting system, but we'd never use them to convert Imperial units or traditional British currency. So yeah, what point was there in teaching other bases to kids? Even the base-2 calculations we have to do seldom require pencil and paper, we use base-2 for the benefit of the computers, not ourselves.
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mudshark: Nate's just being...Nate. Zeke: It comes nateurally to him. mudshark: I don't expect Nate to make sense, really -- it's just a bad idea. Sa'ar Chasm on the 5M.net forum: Sit back, relax, and revel in the insanity. Adam Savage: I reject your reality and substitute my own! Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. Crow T. Robot: Oh, stop pretending there's a plot. Don't cheapen yourself further. 
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