169 or 147?

harmonium.ro wrote: Padraic wrote: harmonium.ro wrote: Padraic wrote: harmonium.ro wrote: refugee wrote: They are both correct. How so? I might be missing something, I was never great at maths, but still... You don't have to be great at maths to know the answer. You know it was a metaphor meaning to say I was rubbish at maths and I actually do need explaining to get it. I'll let you guys have a bit more fun then I'll be waiting to be enlightened. :P I suppose it's all about "reading" it not like a subtraction but something else (which would explain the possibly eccentric position of the minus), but I don't know any other way to read it. It's addition/subtraction in base 8, which means the only "numbers" you have available to you are 0 through 7. So in base 8, 7+1=0, 7+2=1, 7+3=2, etc. You can google modulo arithmetic to learn more. Thanks Pat. I've never heard of this.

harmonium.ro wrote: ^ Never. As for binary, I always thought it is a language that works based on the positioning of 0 and 1 inside sequences, I didn't know it also allows operations. Maybe that's something else, not "binary"?

Padraic wrote: harmonium.ro wrote: ^ Never. As for binary, I always thought it is a language that works based on the positioning of 0 and 1 inside sequences, I didn't know it also allows operations. Maybe that's something else, not "binary"?  Binary is just the base 2 representation of a number, with operations similar to what I described earlier. For example, in binary 1+1=10.  10+10=100, and so on.

Edited by TheGazzardian - December 22 2011 at 11:11

We also use a duodecimal system (base 12) every day: The calendar has 12 months, there are 12 hours on the clock face, we talk about dozens. I don’t know if "The Twelve Days of Christmas" fits in here, though.

Snow Dog wrote: You must have. Surely you have heard of binary? Which is base 2. I think. You can have a system of any base including letters.

You can. A base "n" system merely is a way of writing a number so that the digits read from right to left correspond to increasingly higher powers of your base.

For example, in base "n",

tuvwxyz

just corresponds to the number

t*(n^6)+u*(n^5)+v*(n^4)+w*(n^3)+x*(n^2)+y*(n)+z

The only problem is that you need n unique digits for the representation. Even using our alphabet, we only get 36 and that is still actually very unnatural to use. I only see really high order bases in mathematical proofs. I am not sure of any real application of them.

Hey, this is a poll! You forget to vote! 

Sorry, I forgot to vote myself. I pick 147, not because it’s more "progressive" but because it’s more unusual. And because 169 is in the lead right now.

147 =

refugee wrote: Hey, this is a poll! You forget to vote!  Sorry, I forgot to vote myself. I pick 147, not because it’s more "progressive" but because it’s more unusual. And because 169 is in the lead right now.

I voted 169 because base 8 is silly.

The answer is, and has always been, 42.