tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jul 06 17:03:02 1998
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: Question from a newbie
- From: TPO <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Question from a newbie
- Date: Mon, 06 Jul 1998 20:03:01 -0400
>I can't imagine how Klingons actually formed the number words, but
>presumably they
>were based on the basic {wa', cha', wej}. If they used numerals at all, they
>would
>not have been things like 1,2,3,11,12, etc., because that only makes sense
>in place-
>holder notation. More likely, each numerical value would have had its own
>symbol.
We didn't say that nothing holds places. its just that [zero] can't hold a
place. A value of something is needed to hold a place.
the number 10 in base 3... that first digit is equal to the value of 3. The
zero merely keeps it in that position.
Well since klingon doesn't use zero as a place holder what keeps that 1 in
the first position? nothing. So it drops over to the second position with
the equivalent value of 3.
Think of hexidecimal, but only go to A and don't use zero.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A 11 12 ... 19 1A 21 22 etc
Counting was 1 2 3 11 12 etc using those three numerals.
** KGT p 72.
>I can see that zero isn't needed for simple counting, but I can't see any
>culture doing higher math without it. This is probably why the Klingons
>switched to the base-10 system; I'd expect the sero was adopted then.
KGT p 72,73
And as MO said himself, to be technologically compatible with other races.
And it IS possible to go beyond simple counting and perform higher math.
I am currently using my klingon abacus to work on calculations for making a
klingon slide rule. (Slide rules are constructed from the logs of numbers).
I have made calculations out to nine decimal places. My palm size abacus
can go up to the equivalent of 88572 (base 10).
Tho the system can do higher math, our ancestors who used it didn't need
to do higher math. You don't need calculus to divide a targ amoung friends :)
DloraH