Number System?

[alavda-isere]

Since I skipped Matthew's word in the word creation thread, I thought I'd start a thread to discuss number systems. (Apologies if this isn't the right board for this.) I freely admit that this isn't my forte though

[kadani]

I suggest that we refrain from using an unintuitive system with an odd (both not even and weird) base like 13. Not only because of the weirdness but also because of the precedent set in the language creation thread.

If you want an odd system of numbers, there could be the oodity of the German (123 = hundred-three-and-twenty) or the French system (70 being 60-10 and 80 being 4-twenty) as an inspiration.

[Matthew Turnbull]

I agree that unintuitive base systems are a little odd, so basically we only have a few easy options, 5, 10, 20 and sometimes 8 but I don't really like 8.

[kadani]

5 minght be okay for low numbers, but if, in speech, I would want to refer to 1093 (an internet meme in an IRC channel) you would require a calculator.

[Dedalvs]

I have to say, realistic or no, I've tended to stick to base 10 simply because I can NOT for the life of me figure out bases different from 10 on the fly. If we did do a different base, would we have to write the digits using the number system (so that the number five would be written 10 in base 5...?).

[kadani]

Yeah, 10 would be 5.
10 would be 20

Edit: changing the font sizes does not work? Okay, I also wrote the base in green.

Edit2: We can hoaever use a subbase like the French do...

[Miatato]

I am in favor of a simple base-10 numbering system. It's easy on my poor addled brain.

[Matthew Turnbull]

hey, I'm good with base ten, I think that like French and English we should have some irregular numbers. Like eleven, twelve.
[onz,duz,trez,katɔʁz,kẽz,sez]

[alexfink]

One system I've wanted to use but haven't found a place for yet is a sort of halfway-subtractive system. To wit, in base 10, 1 through 5 would be roots, whereas 6 through 9 would be (abstractifiedly) formed as 10-4 through 10-1. And you'd use the same subtractions anywhere else in place of digits 6 through 9: e.g. after 55 = 5*10+5 comes 56 = 100-4*10-4.

[Zwangzug]

So how would you represent a number like 71? (10-3) *10 + 1? Or 100- (10*3) +1? Something else?