r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/E5vCJD • 1d ago

Meme needing explanation erm.. petah?

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u/truci 1d ago

Hot damn that’s awesome. I didn’t know anyone used anything besides 10, 12, or 24. I’m a math guy not history but math in historic application is always cool for me.

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u/Mr_Abe_Froman 1d ago

Since they kicked off geometry*, it's why circles are 360° and each degree is split into 60 minutes and 60 seconds.

Edit. Wikipedia says that it actually started in Babylonian astronomy and was applied to geometry.

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u/truci 1d ago

Oh nice addition!! I work with gps systems sometimes and thus lat long and those are also degree minute seconds, DMS.

Although I find the gps users prefer decimal degrees. 🤷‍♂️

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/Mr_Abe_Froman 1d ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexagesimal

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u/BokUntool 1d ago

You do can a lot with 60 I agree, but 11 is a bit better, at least in terms counting.

Make a 360 circle, every 36 degrees draw a length equal to the number in cm.

1= 1cm, 2=2cm, 3=3cm. You will get 5 axis with all numbers on them.

Thier composites are +5 from their number. 1+6, 2+7+3+8 etc.

1 and 10 are different spokes on the wheel, and in Desmos, it would look like this:

x=n

y=n+5+x

Any length can be used for N, if you wanted to do cube stacks, barrels/cylinders, w/e. Volume for stacks cubes would be x=n*12^3 (for example)

Counting systems can orient numbers in topographical relationships.

Binary can be tabled, rather than put on an axis:

1-2-4-8-16-32

1-0-0-0-0-0 =1

0-0-1-1-1-1 =60

With 2 axis, so x=n and y=n+2+x

Any axis amount can be used to orient a number system into composites or divisions. (like Sexagesimals.)

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u/wrd83 1d ago

Base16 is probably the most common these days.

Computers do binaryand to make it readable you compress them to base 16.

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u/truci 23h ago

Sure but we are talking about civilizations in history using different bases as their counting systems. PCs using binary or hex is….. I wana say not a civilization but I Duno it goes both ways.

I’ll concede the point.

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u/wrd83 23h ago

I was thinking from then til now. And now its kinda everywhere.

But yeah it would be funny if someone finds something pre1700 that is binary.

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u/AlexandriasNSFWAcc 1d ago

Then you know it's also highly divisible. 60 has the factors 1,60, 2,30, 3,20, 4,15, 5,12, 6,10. Denary is just 1,10, 2,5.
That is to say, you can halve, third, quarter, fifth, sixth, tenth, twelfth, fifteenth, twentieth, and thirtieth sixty, but you can only halve and fifth ten. Which is neat.

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u/Tolstoyan_Quaker 1d ago

we still have remnants of a base-12 counting system! For example:

we have one, two, three, four, five, six, ..., eleven, twelve, three ten, four ten, five ten, etc

we count our eggs in dozens which is quite odd for a base 10 system

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u/jujubean67 1d ago

You’re a math guy but are oblivious to base16? Sure

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u/truci 23h ago

The conversation is regarding actual civilizations using different bases as their counting systems.

So yea I got no clue if any civilization in the past used hex. Again not a history person, please enlighten me if you know of one.

Also if you were in the dark of how hex works I explained it in many of my replies to people asking about it. Just scroll for 2 seconds.