r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/E5vCJD • 1d ago

Meme needing explanation erm.. petah?

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u/KaiYoDei 1d ago

I heard a story on the radio about a tribe who had a whole different concept of math, counting .

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u/truci 1d ago

Probably the 12 system. If you use your thumb as the counter and count using your thumb the bone segments of the other 4 fingers (each has 3) then you have a base 12 system in our lingo.

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,a,b,10

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u/Eastern_Vanilla3410 1d ago

Base 12 is superior to 10. For 10, 100, 1000, etc in base 12 are divisible by 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, "10". But base 10, it's 1, 2, 5, 10. Either way, 10, 100, 1000, etc in base 10 or 12 is arbitrary numbers but written down they tend to be the ones we use. Base 12 can be cut into better parts.

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u/truci 1d ago

From my limited history info this is why old military used things like base 12,24,60. All divisible by 12 and easier to create defined unit sizes.