this post was submitted on 07 Dec 2023
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The metric system should be redone in base 12, and RPN should be the norm for teaching arithmetic.
Base 16 is superior and once you learn binary math, easier to divide and multiply.
What base 12 gives you is a lot of common divisors: 2, 3, 4, and 6. Base 10 only has 2 and 5. Base 16 only has 2, 4, 8.
The practical upshot of this is that you can divide things evenly in more ways. Particularly when wanting to divide a board into thirds. Having 12 inches to a foot is actually helpful there, though it falls apart as soon as you get larger.
Base 16 is great when you're interacting with a computer, but aside from that, not much. Only being divisible by 2 is kind of a pain in the real world.
This is incorrect, and you don't understand why base 12 is useful. However for binary operations, hex is great. But not for general counting.
I'm not experienced with RPN but at a glance think there's a solid argument for it.
Both are easily countable on fingers using your thumb and counting up the segments for base 12 and adding the pads for base sixteen. You can reasonably count to 144(gross) or 256 using both hands to create a two digit dozenal or hexadecimal number.
Good points, 12 seems to be superior and I've changed my opinion.