tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Nov 07 17:28:09 1994

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Re: the qelI'qam, was Re: Nonexistent words ...?



On Mon, 7 Nov 1994, Mark E. Shoulson wrote:
> 
> Um... what has 9,000 to do with threes?  Only to someone who assumes
> there's significance to 10 (and therefore 1000) in the first place does the
> 3x3 become apparent.  In base 3, 9000=110100100.  In base 9, it's 13310.
> Not really round numbers, any more than 8560 is a round number in base 10.
> 

Which is exactly my point.  The base ten would be a 'natural' way of 
counting because Klingons have ten fingers.  A mystical significance of 
3x3 to make 9 is a simple addition onto the base 10.  It doesn't need to 
be more complicated than that.  The meter is based on some nearly 
arbetrary division of the Earth's circumferene.

[.......]
> Aha!!  *That* would explain why all Terran cultures use base 4!  I was
> wondering about that.  After all, with a year very close to 365-1/4 days,
> base four is completely obvious.  Actually, it's too bad we don't; a
> calendar in which leap years are every four years except once every 128
> years (*very* easy to remember in base 4) is an order of magnitude or so
> more accurate than the Gregorian calendar the West uses now.  Bummer.

No need to get absurd.  The Mayans had a base-12 numbering system because 
of the lunar cycle dividing the year into 12 months.  They chose to 
impose an 'unnatural' numbering system on their subjects for 
administrative or religious or some other reason.  However, I'm sure a 
good deal of common counting was done in base-10 because the average 
illiterate couldn't figure out how to count in base-12 on his fingers.

The point is, the Mayans thought their calendar was important enough to 
create a system whereby it permeated their culture.  Official documents 
had to be in base-12  to pay homage to the lunar cycle.  The 12-month 
motif was seen throughout art, archetecture, and mysticism.

Aparently, the Klingons had the same thing for the number 3.  The 
Imperial Trefoil has a triangular shape, their ships have a triangular 
profile, they had a base-3 numbering system.  Something about '3' had to 
be so important that they wanted it everywhere.  Why not the calendar 
like the Mayans?  Given that the Klingon Homeworld seems overcast all the 
time, astronomical adjustments to the calendar would be fiew and far 
between.  A simple formula for making sure calendars throughout the 
kingdom are accurate would ensure that far-flug actions were coordinated, 
holidays were celebrated on the right day, taxes were collected on time.

If there's an extra third of a day at the end of each year, a base-3 
numbering system is an easy way to remember.

Personally, I find the comment on the 'Conversational Klingon' tape that 
Klingons abandoned the base three system to better understand 'advanced 
technology' to be insulting.  Surely, Klingons had been using base-10 for 
many things since they first evolved intelligence.  It's easy to count to 
10 when you have 10 fingers.  And while the base-3 was used for 
'official' communiques and documents, base-10 was used by the great 
unwashed masses.  When Klingon civilization became able to hurl 
themselves above their clouded world the need to accurize their calendars 
in that way became obsolete.  Base three died out (as, hopefully, the 
English system of measure will)

> 
> Making a Klingon day 28 hours?
>

Indeed.  The FASA rules say the Klingon day is 28 Terran hours long.
 
(signed)
Kordite, Intelligence Officer, IKV Dark Justice, Klingon Assault Group

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