Counting

I think so. Because lots of kids grow up counting on their fingers.

I think somebody proved ages ago though that until we learn to do so at a young age, humans naturally count in a 12 based system.
 
I think it would be hard to prove that the decimal system was driven by digits. It's thousands of years old, but I think it'd be safe to assume it :D
 
My money would be on the fingers thing. If we had 8, then we might've used octal, and it would've probably been just as easy to learn and use as decimal. Similarly we might've used Hexadecimal (base 16) or Binary (god forbid).
 
Visage said:
If thats the case, why dont the Simpsons count in Octal?

IT DOESNT MAKE SENSE.
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The people creating the Simpsons have ten digits though... I hate to break it to you like this; the Simpsons are not real people!

:D
 
Might not be because of our digits as not all cultures have evolved to use base 10. I think that the pheonicians (sp) used base 12 and thats why there are 24 hours in a day.

I also think that some south american cultures used other bases. We use 10 because the Romans did, and probably the Greeks before them but we could have been using any base if someone else had a bigger empire.
 
dirtydog said:
Surely we do it because it's simplest?
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it's only simplest to us because it's the system we use, and the numbers we have 0-9 were created for the purpose of using it

im not asking for like a report where it was decided :p just people seem to be suggesting there is some research into how it's come about, would just be interested if there were any links about it

just found a site which says egyptians also used base-10, although the babylonians used base-60?!
 
dirtydog said:
If you multiply something by ten you just add a nought on the end for a start.
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Erm, but that would change based on the system used. If you used duodecimal (base 12), then multiplying any number by 12 would add a 0 on the end.

In fact, as I've argued with friends before, a duodecimal system would in some ways be better to use than the decimal, because you can divide it wholly more ways.
 
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[DOD]Asprilla said:
Might not be because of our digits as not all cultures have evolved to use base 10. I think that the pheonicians (sp) used base 12 and thats why there are 24 hours in a day.
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did the peonicians possibly have 12 digits.... anything's possible with a bit of inbreeding
 
dirtydog said:
If you multiply something by ten you just add a nought on the end for a start.
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That effect could be preserved with any base though surely?

Just 'proved' it to myself on paper, base 8 was the example i used - digits 0-7 then 10-17 etc. In that system 8*2 = 20.
 
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