Powers of Ten

[Mattey]

http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/j...su/powersof10/

[TelC@t]

10 is such a special number because we have 10 fingers?

[Emaho]

what did you like to say with that post matey?

[Mattey]

It keeps going down by a magnitude of 10 from a view of the Milky way to the inside of a quark.

[Emaho]

Ok.. now I see.. at first when i pressed the link the video didn't start.. interesting actually..

[Machine of God]

Originally posted by TelC@t
10 is such a special number because we have 10 fingers?

either that or because its the first double digit number

[TelC@t]

Dude ... if u still haven't got what I meant ...

5000 yrs ago, there was no page and pen, obviously who ever invented arithmatics had to use hands to help himself/herself counting.

11 = your pair of hands + 1 finger from your friend's hand

21 = your pairs of hands + your friends pair of hand + 1 finger from an idiot who lend you an extra finger

Doh

[Troll King]

Originally posted by Machine of God
either that or because its the first double digit number

Which is only because we're in base 10. Chicken and the egg.

[Verthanthi]

Originally posted by TelC@t
10 is such a special number because we have 10 fingers?

"So magnetic fields work because our right hand looks like an L?"

[Troll King]

No, but if early humans evolved with 8 fingers, they would have started to count in eights, giving us a base 8 system.

[Mayo Inc.]

wow no number 9

[Eric is God]

Originally posted by TelC@t
10 is such a special number because we have 10 fingers?

Wow Telcat, did you read the same Sci Fi book I did? Was about two different specieis of alien that came to Earth, one resembled a spider species and the other some sort of amphibious lifeform. The book was primarily about whether or not the universe was "programed" by some higher being. The aliens had basically proved mathematically that it was statistically impossible that the universe formed in the manner it did naturally and was about to support life such as our anywhere. The one big leap you had to accept was that the aliens had proved, on their own, that there are only a maximum of 9 dimensions or alternative realities which of course discounts the infinite reality theory.

Anyways, the point I wanted to make is that in this book the aliens mention how different their mathematical systems were from those of humans. The amphibious lifeforms evolved with a sum total of 13 digits I think, which made it very difficult for them to be efficient at simple math. Apparently in their society it was very hard to discern the difference between a group of say 8 objects and 9 objects and nearly impossible to tell the difference between 42 and say 45 objects (they just couldnt wrap their brains around it). Humans are able to calculate the relative size of a group of objects up to around 25 by just glancing at it and not actually counting them.

The spider aliens had 8 legs and 4 arms, both of which are good base multiples to deal with so their society evolved with a strong emphasise on math. By contrast the amphibious lifeforms developed into great philosophers who viewed questions of morality and justice the way we look at the question 4+2. This made for a relatively crime free world for them.

Of course as humans we have 2 arms and legs, 10 fingers and toes; very good multiples to work with mathetically. So thats why we not only grasp simple concepts in math easily but, also why we have a base 10 system. Could you imagine working was a base 7 or 13 system? I think it would cause major problems in terms of currency, measurement and trade tracing back thousands of years.

Wow I must be bored because that was a novel, sorry

[ÆNIMA]

You must've read Footfall by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.

In that book there was an attacking race of aliens that looked a lot like baby elephants, except with more trunks. And at the end of their trunks they had 8 digits, which were like fingers to us.

And all throughout the book they referenced quantities to multiples of 8. The reason they counted by 8's was because of their 8 digits, we have 10 fingers...we think best in multiples of ten.

Footfall's a really good invasion novel, a good read for SciFi lovers.

Telcat, think logically here. Why would you gather other people to do your counting for you, when you could just use rocks?

Which brings me to something else a little interesting, in latin...the word for rock is "calculi" and in certain cases "calculus"....coincedence?

[Eric is God]

sigh accident post, please delete

[ConcreteSchlyrd]

You're all discounting the fact that the Babylonians were using a primarily base 60 system long before base 10 became the norm.