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Mar. 4th, 2009 01:58 pmAs I was riding the bus this morning, I caught sight of the operator number -2700. "Ah-ha!" my brain says. "What a lovely number. Reminiscent of tertiary!"
As I pondered further, however, I came to realize that no, it wasn't at all. 2700 is only a notable number because of base ten. In trinary, it's 10200122*, which is certainly a messier number.
As I was trying to commit the number to memory, I found myself saying "ten million, two hundred thousand, one hundred twenty two", which is actually quite wrong. Is there a proper way to designate the places in other bases? And I can't really say "ten 729s" to start, can I, because there's not ten of them, there's three.
Other bases are difficult. But fun! There is a longer post brewing, that, among other things, will help explain to the non math inclined among you what the hell I mean when I say that 102001223 = 270010
~Sor
MOOP!
*I think. I did it in my head on the bus, so I'm not positive I have it correct.
ETA: Tertiary =/= trinary
As I pondered further, however, I came to realize that no, it wasn't at all. 2700 is only a notable number because of base ten. In trinary, it's 10200122*, which is certainly a messier number.
As I was trying to commit the number to memory, I found myself saying "ten million, two hundred thousand, one hundred twenty two", which is actually quite wrong. Is there a proper way to designate the places in other bases? And I can't really say "ten 729s" to start, can I, because there's not ten of them, there's three.
Other bases are difficult. But fun! There is a longer post brewing, that, among other things, will help explain to the non math inclined among you what the hell I mean when I say that 102001223 = 270010
~Sor
MOOP!
*I think. I did it in my head on the bus, so I'm not positive I have it correct.
ETA: Tertiary =/= trinary