r/mathmemes Nov 21 '20

All bases are base 10.

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3.6k Upvotes

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130

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?

3

u/baganga Nov 21 '20

Systems engineer here, we use it sometimes for compression / crypto stuff or when using very specific mathematical properties of each base for some operations but that's not too often.