• 1rre@discuss.tchncs.de
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        2 年前

        Base 12 is not organically common, it’s incredibly rare even with the modern counting systems we’ve discovered…

        The frequency of emergences (based on language families that use them) are: 4 ~1 time, 5 ~4 times, 6 ~3 times, 8 ~2 times, 10 ?? times, 12 ~3 times, 15 ~1 time, 20 ~9 times, 20+5 ~2 times, 23 ~1 time, 24 ~1 time, 27 ~1-2 times, 32 ~1 time, 60 ~2 times

    • betheydocrime@lemmy.world
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      2 年前

      If we had 8 fingers, or 3 fingers, or 15 fingers, we would still be using base 10. It’s just that the value of “10” would be different each time

    • candybrie@lemmy.world
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      2 年前

      Yes but (1) that isn’t the only base system humans use and (2) aliens could use a base system entirely divorced from their body parts. So number of fingers doesn’t have to dictate which base system is used.