Subject: [lojban] Re: possible A-F...

From: And Rosta <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2001 17:34:08 +0100

>>> <[email-masked]> 10/02/01 03:33pm >>>
#--- In lojban@y..., pycyn@a... wrote:
#> Rationality coming into play would have duodecimal winning. Hex comes after 
#> 60, probably.
#
#you give no reason for decimal other than tradition, which is such a 
#lazy and meaningless defense. i've given the reason for hexadecimal--
#it is a power of 2.

Why is it being a power of 2 a reason? Why is it a good thing that it is a power of two.

The benefits of 12 and 60 have been pointed out by Mark in several
messages -- they make it easy to divide by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, (10, 12, 15, 20, 30).

I guess one can use traditional nonmetric measures to gauge which bases aremost useful, at least for dividing things up. 12 and 60 are familiar of
course. Old money had 12 pence to the shilling and 20 shillings to the
pound and 21 to the guinea. There are 14 pounds to the stone (why?!?)
and -- lo! -- 16 ounces to the pound (tho we in Britain talk about 
half a pound and quarter of a pound when in grocery contexts).

--And.