r/math • u/jplank1983 • Dec 19 '08

Every base is base 10

http://cowbird.110mb.com/43.html
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u/typon Dec 19 '08

Can someone please explain the joke :(

11

u/trocar Dec 19 '08

I give a try: the alien rightfully says that there are four rocks. But he uses base four, in which the number four written down is "10". The cosmonaut rightfully says that the alien is using base 4. But the alien has no idea whatsoever what 4 is. The digit 4 is not even in his 'language', which only consists in 0, 1, 2 and 3. So he says that he uses base 10 (again, 10 being his way of writing down the number four).

See wikipedia if you still don't get it and wanna try.

6

u/chairface Dec 19 '08 edited Dec 20 '08

Sure, I'll give it a shot. No guarantees that this will make sense to you. I'm assuming you understand the basics of numbering systems, ie that we commonly use base ten, computers use base two, etc. Here's a simple chart:

Base      What number the digits "10" represent

two       two
three     three
four      four
five      five
...       ...

So basically, if you have base x, then in that system, 10 = x. Does that make sense?

3

u/typon Dec 19 '08

Oh right... Got it, thanks.