[HN Gopher] My Love Affair with Dozens (1972) [pdf] ___________________________________________________________________ My Love Affair with Dozens (1972) [pdf] Author : dalke Score : 16 points Date : 2021-04-19 06:37 UTC (16 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.dozenal.org) (TXT) w3m dump (www.dozenal.org) | canjobear wrote: | For the Tolkien nerds, Elvish numerals use base 12. | | https://www.languagesandnumbers.com/how-to-count-in-quenya/e... | travisjungroth wrote: | I enjoy dozenal. I also enjoy weightlifting. An interesting | property of dozenal is how compatible it is with American barbell | weights. I haven't heard anyone mention this before (who knows | why. the intersection of mathematicians and powerlifters?) | | American weights are normally a 45lb barbell, 45lb plates, and | then additional smaller plates. The large plates are just called | "plates" and counted on one side. 1 plate -> 135 (45*2+45bar), 2 | plates -> 225, 3 plates -> 315, 4 plates -> 405. These seemingly | weird numbers become "round" when you've been lifting them a | while. | | What about jumps smaller than that? It gets a little weird. 45 | doesn't exactly break up nicely. You might have 35s, definitely | 25s, maybe 15s (especially olympic lifters) then 10s, 5s, and | 2.5s (called "twos"). "A plate, a twenty-five and a two" is 190. | Then you get into "washers". Maybe a 1.25. Or if you have a few | pairs of 0.75s and 0.5s you can make any integer. | | This is not ideal. You need to have more different types of | plates than is most necessary. The math is summing up lots of odd | numbers. | | Enter dozenal plates. I'll put a d at the front for dozenal | measurements. A dozenal plate would be d40, or 48lbs. Pretty darn | close to the 45s. The bar is also d40. So a bar with a plate on | each side is... d100. Well that's nice. 2 plates -> d180, 3 | plates -> d240, 4 plates -> d300. And the smaller plates: d20, | d10, d6, d3. If those jumps of 6 total pounds are too big, you | could add d1.6, and d0.9 washers. All perfectly split. | phamilton wrote: | I feel strongly that base 6 or base 11 would make more sense than | base 5 or base 10. yes, I have 10 fingers, but I can also | represent 0 with no fingers, giving me 11 states. | | 11 is awkward, but using one hand for the ones place and one hand | for the sixes place works quite well. | phamilton wrote: | I once saw a carpenters square that was a foot long on each side, | but one side was divided into quarter inches and the other | divided into thirds of an inch. | | I was told it was used to make 3/4/5 right triangles, which was | kinda fascinating. | hervature wrote: | Why would 3/4/5 right triangles be useful for carpenters? | 30-60-90 are definitely useful though. | cjhveal wrote: | One of my favorite language Youtubers, jan Misali, has an | interesting video on Dozenal and "Seximal" (base 6) number | systems. | | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qID2B4MK7Y0 ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-04-19 23:01 UTC)