During the French Revolution the savants of France, including people such as Lagrange considered the question of using decimal counting alongside decimal units of measure and duodecimal counting alongside duodecimal units of measure. They decided that since decimal; counting worked and the duodecimal system of measure was riddled with corruption (in France at any rate) that decimal measures would be significantly easier to introduce than duodecimal counting. (Pages 71-72 of this reference: http://www.eipiphiny.org/books/history-of-binary.pdf).
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Carleton MacDonald Sent: 09 July 2013 02:09 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:53042] RE: Why We Should Switch To A Base-12 Counting System Two comments: In change bell ringing, the towers where I ring have 10 bells, and in place notation they are: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0. Some towers, such as in New York, have 12 bells, and they are: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, E, T. Counting using digits: Yes, if we used sandals, we could do base 20; half the population perhaps could use base 21. Carleton -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Monday, July 08, 2013 20:41 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:53041] Why We Should Switch To A Base-12 Counting System FYI- http://io9.com/5977095/why-we-should-switch-to-a-base+12-counting-system Sent from my iPad
