HeliodoR wrote:
Umm... we're not speaking about the same issue. :)My question was about basic names for digits, from {no} to {vai}: why do we have exactly 16 of them?
You can cover all numbers with very few digits - one is enough (peano arithmetic), two is more common (binary code). For various reasons (for example, conserving the short-cmavo-namespace, and also for having fewer to remember) you'd want as few as possible. But you also want enough of them to cover the popular numerical bases. Speaking in hexadecimal with only ten numerals is annoying since there'd be ambiguity between B5 {papa mu} and 1F {pa pamu}, so we need at least sixteen.
As few as possible + at least sixteen -> sixteen. (BTW, this doesn't cover twenty-based systems such as the mayan system.) mi'e snan