Re: Edmonton Eskimos

On Tue, 25 Nov 2003 14:39:26 -0600, Jason Hoehn wrote
(in message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>):

> Once again, metric is base 10,

Arbitrary. Counting by 10s in no more or less logical than counting by 
multiples of any other number.

> just like everything else on the planet,

Nope. Nature overwhelmingly reflects Fibonaccian counting, not fixed-interval 
counting.

> including all of humanity's fundamental mathematical system,...

> Then again, I'm assuming you have no idea why mathematics have base ten
> globally. Every society on the planet has had their mathematics base 10.

These statements aren't even remotely true. The majority of pre-colonial 
American cultures counted in base-20. The ancient Babylonians counted in 
base-60. Their predecessors counted variously in base-5 and base-12. 
Mathematicians commonly do work in base-8 or base-16, because they're just 
easier to use for some mathematical operations than decimal is. Computers 
function exclusively on base-2. Computer orogrammers regularly use 
hexadecimal in coding, which the compiler then converts to binary so that the 
hardware can understand it. I've got friends who have been programmers for so 
long that they actually think in hexadecimal rather than decimal.

> here's a question for you, why IS mathematics
> base 10?,.... It's pretty obvious.

No, it's arbitrary. In fact, most aspects of human behaviour that people 
think are "obvious" are really just arbitrary ways of doing things that we 
only still do because that's what we've always done and we think that it's 
probably more trouble than it's worth to do them some other way.

Math is a superficial system of idea codification just like language is. 
Numbers are just the convenient means that we use to express the abstractions 
behind the numbers that are the *real* math. The only reason you assume 
(falsely) that all math is base-10 is because Western cultures traditionally 
(i.e., arbitrarily) count in base-10, and you don't really sound like the 
kind of guy who knows any better.

The universe would still be here if we counted in base-12 or base-16. Sadly, 
you still wouldn't have the slightest clue what you were talking about.

-- 
Daniel Seriff

The power of Debbie's breasts compels you.