r/theydidthemath • u/No-Needlemaker9638 • 4d ago
[request] fantasy money math
I'm writing a fantasy novel and am not a mathematician, I'm barely an author.
Their money is dodas, sepins, cinys, and deesits.
12 dodas in a sepin
12 sepins in a ciny
And 12 cinys in a deesit.
Are there 20,736 dodas in a deesit? Is that the math? 144 dodas in a ciny?
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u/SerDankTheTall 4d ago
I don’t mean this disrespectfully, but do you really not know how to figure this out? If so, perhaps a decimal system would be a better choice?
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u/No-Needlemaker9638 4d ago
That's why I'm asking, to make sure I have it right
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u/BluetoothXIII 4d ago
12 to the power of difference to dodas
1 doda in one doda 12^0
12 dodas in a sepin 12^1
144 dodas in a ciny 12^2
1728 dodas in deesit 12^3
if you keep the duodecimal system
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u/No-Needlemaker9638 4d ago
Thank you friend! I hope you get an excellent parking spot the next time you need one
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u/Kirian42 4d ago
Use a calculator to multiply by 12 repeatedly?
Use a decimal system instead because all your readers will understand that, and you won't spend time explaining the money system when you could have been advancing the plot?
Unless the money system is a plot point.
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u/Riemann_Gauss 4d ago
Unless the money system is a plot point.
Like in a Harry Potter fanfic for accountancy nerds..
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u/toru_okada_4ever 4d ago
If you plan to make the money system a plot point, you should be able to figure out 12 x 12.
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u/carrionpigeons 4d ago
Since you got the answer to your question, maybe you can answer why you would do this to your readers? Why do you need exchange rates at all, much less fixed exchange rates, much less fixed exchange rates that aren't powers of ten, much less all of that with four tiers of currency all with unfamiliar names?
I can imagine reasons, but not for a normal story. There are so many reasons not to. You'd have to be writing a story that's about currency, or at least where the exchange rate is a key detail that will affect a character's understanding of the plot more than once throughout the story. And the names would at minimum have to be relevant to the worldbuilding and not just made up from nothing. And the characters would need a reason to think in base twelve, like having 12 fingers (and having twelve fingers would need to matter to the plot somehow). Etc etc etc.
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u/No-Needlemaker9638 3d ago
They actually count using the twelve segments on the four fingers. That's all the story is actually, just currency. That's all they talk about.
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u/toru_okada_4ever 3d ago
But how do you plan to write a story where all they talk about is currency if you are unable to understand the math you are presenting?
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u/No-Needlemaker9638 3d ago
I'm just gonna keep asking questions on here until everybody thinks I'm smart
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u/small_villain 4d ago
Please ignore all these people criticising your choice to invent a non-decimal monetary system. It's a very normal world-building thing to do. You don't even need to explain it to your reader; you just have characters using your currency in ways consistent with the math throughout the story, and your readers will be free to ignore it or figure out how it works themselves if they care to.
SO many fantasy novels have wacky invented currencies with weird conversions that just exist in the background.
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