this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2023
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Strange Planet by Nathan W. Pyle

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Number of fingers doesn't have to dictate their number system. If they're using a decimal based number system, then a decimal based measurement system is still the logical choice.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

It partially does, the percentage of languages that use base 10 is nearly 100 and most that don't use base 5 or 20... Sure there's others (60 being the main one that still has an effect on most people's lives) but they're vanishingly uncommon

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

It does though. Base 10 is entirely due to humans having 10 fingers.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Took me a bit but indeed. I love this fact now

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

It's the classic 'there are 10 types of people...' joke, but for a number system other than binary

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

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.