[HN Gopher] My Love Affair with Dozens (1972) [pdf]
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       My Love Affair with Dozens (1972) [pdf]
        
       Author : dalke
       Score  : 16 points
       Date   : 2021-04-19 06:37 UTC (16 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.dozenal.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.dozenal.org)
        
       | canjobear wrote:
       | For the Tolkien nerds, Elvish numerals use base 12.
       | 
       | https://www.languagesandnumbers.com/how-to-count-in-quenya/e...
        
       | travisjungroth wrote:
       | I enjoy dozenal. I also enjoy weightlifting. An interesting
       | property of dozenal is how compatible it is with American barbell
       | weights. I haven't heard anyone mention this before (who knows
       | why. the intersection of mathematicians and powerlifters?)
       | 
       | American weights are normally a 45lb barbell, 45lb plates, and
       | then additional smaller plates. The large plates are just called
       | "plates" and counted on one side. 1 plate -> 135 (45*2+45bar), 2
       | plates -> 225, 3 plates -> 315, 4 plates -> 405. These seemingly
       | weird numbers become "round" when you've been lifting them a
       | while.
       | 
       | What about jumps smaller than that? It gets a little weird. 45
       | doesn't exactly break up nicely. You might have 35s, definitely
       | 25s, maybe 15s (especially olympic lifters) then 10s, 5s, and
       | 2.5s (called "twos"). "A plate, a twenty-five and a two" is 190.
       | Then you get into "washers". Maybe a 1.25. Or if you have a few
       | pairs of 0.75s and 0.5s you can make any integer.
       | 
       | This is not ideal. You need to have more different types of
       | plates than is most necessary. The math is summing up lots of odd
       | numbers.
       | 
       | Enter dozenal plates. I'll put a d at the front for dozenal
       | measurements. A dozenal plate would be d40, or 48lbs. Pretty darn
       | close to the 45s. The bar is also d40. So a bar with a plate on
       | each side is... d100. Well that's nice. 2 plates -> d180, 3
       | plates -> d240, 4 plates -> d300. And the smaller plates: d20,
       | d10, d6, d3. If those jumps of 6 total pounds are too big, you
       | could add d1.6, and d0.9 washers. All perfectly split.
        
       | phamilton wrote:
       | I feel strongly that base 6 or base 11 would make more sense than
       | base 5 or base 10. yes, I have 10 fingers, but I can also
       | represent 0 with no fingers, giving me 11 states.
       | 
       | 11 is awkward, but using one hand for the ones place and one hand
       | for the sixes place works quite well.
        
       | phamilton wrote:
       | I once saw a carpenters square that was a foot long on each side,
       | but one side was divided into quarter inches and the other
       | divided into thirds of an inch.
       | 
       | I was told it was used to make 3/4/5 right triangles, which was
       | kinda fascinating.
        
         | hervature wrote:
         | Why would 3/4/5 right triangles be useful for carpenters?
         | 30-60-90 are definitely useful though.
        
       | cjhveal wrote:
       | One of my favorite language Youtubers, jan Misali, has an
       | interesting video on Dozenal and "Seximal" (base 6) number
       | systems.
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qID2B4MK7Y0
        
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       (page generated 2021-04-19 23:01 UTC)