r/mathmemes • u/TheHarcker • Nov 21 '20

All bases are base 10.

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132

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '20

are there fractional base, irrational, complex, quaternion, octonion, sedenion... bases?

119

u/StevenC21 Nov 21 '20

You could define it if you want but it kind of implodes since the whole point of our bases is just to describe what numerals we're allowed to use, and all those other sets of numbers are compositions of our numerals.

28

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '20

does the "number theory people" deal with this type of stuff?

23

u/StevenC21 Nov 21 '20

No not really.

15

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '20

which branch of mathematics has the bases and stuff?

33

u/murtaza64 Nov 21 '20

Computer scientists (probably engineers actually) care about bases for representation in the hardware. Most systems use binary representations, but some specialized devices like financial calculators represent numbers in base 10 (even though the circuits still operate on boolean logic)

10

u/Hayden2332 Nov 21 '20

As well as hexadecimal and sometimes base 8 as well. But these happen at the hardware level in boolean logic as well.

2

u/GreenOceanis Nov 21 '20

Not always. SSDs usually store values in other bases, like TLC, where one cell actually represents 3 bits, QLC where it represents 4, and so on. This is the very reason why SSDs became cheap recently