tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Oct 21 19:13:40 1997
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Re: base 3 (was RE: vIghojqa')
la'Hom qorDayt wrote:
> My own speculation is that Klingon always had a base ten and that the base
> three was an artifical construct for political/religious reasons. Humans have
> base ten likely because they have ten fingers and the counting system developed
> from that 'natural' way of counting. There are a few instances of non-base-10
> numbering systems (ancient americas Maya? Inca? one of those guys. Didn't they
> have a base 12?) But, from what I recall, those numbering systems were used for
> official records of the government. The general population might well have used
> a base ten, counting on their fingers.
The Mayan and *Azteca* used a based-20 system, which was used in part of
their calender system. Their calender had:
20 days = 1 month
18 months + (5 dead days) = 1 year.
20 years = 1 generation.
20 generations = 1 era
However their numbering system used a pure 20-base, not a
20-18-20..-base, even though some books have stated such.
I am familiar with the Aztecanahuatl language enough to have verified
this myself.
Some languages still have remnants of a 20-base system:
Fran�ais, to say 72: (one says in French 60 and 12). 80 (foour-score),
etc.
Euskara which happens to be spoken in northern Espa�a and south-western
France, as well as Cymru language (spoken west England) use a 20-base
system below a hundred. (However modern Cymru has been using a base-10
system for a few decades now).
The Babylonians (the ones that wrote in the cuneiform script) used a
base-60 system. From which we do get our 12-hour half-days, and
60-minute and -second hour and minute respectively, and our 360-degree
circle.
I have been using a base-3 system for fun.
However instead of digits {1,2,3}, I use {-1,0,+1} as the digits.
mughtej jIH.
mi'e xe fanva tadni
the Metamorphologist