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RvBOMally — Middle Standard Imperial Numerals
Published: 2016-02-17 04:59:40 +0000 UTC; Views: 1679; Favourites: 25; Downloads: 12
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Description
Middle Standard Imperial - and almost all of the languages descended from it - use a base eight numeral system. The MSI numeral system was descended from that of Archaic Martian, which transitioned from the base ten numeral system used during the Solar Federation era. Base ten numerals are more natural for baseline humans, because they have ten fingers, but base eight was more efficient for communicating with ancient Martian computers. Therefore, the Martians adopted base eight for their tech-language. Many cultures throughout the galaxy have adopted a base ten system, but the modern galactic powers continue to use the base eight system.OOC: If you want to write a number out in base eight, use this calculator.
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Comments: 9
Did the Solar Federation base their numerals off of Earth's lunar calendar, or is it just a coincidence?
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Pff, everyone knows that all the cool kids use a duodecimal system. If by "cool kids" we mean "people who spend time thinking about non-decimal systems of numeration". Your Martians are clearly dweebs.
What do the dyn use, BTW?
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They use a base five system. Actually, determining number systems is one of the first things human xenobiologists do, because first attempts at actual communication are via mathematics.
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"A million curses upon you, filthy humans!"
"That's like, what, about fifteen thousand curses?"
"That's still a lot of curses!"
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That reminds me: all numbers that show up in text are "translated" from octal (or whichever) to decimal numbering.
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I use base-12 sometimes, but only when I need to count numbers over 10 on my fingers.
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