It's Christmas! Given that there are twelve days in Christmas, I thought it timely to write about my desire for the world to go duodecimal. I came up with this idea in my youth, independently of anyone else, after which I discovered there was a whole bunch of likeminded people out there – how scary is that?
As I've previously mentioned, the number twelve comes up quite a lot in my 'blog entries. Most of the time it's coincidental (twelve types of shrimp in Fairway, for example). Others may be less so, although I can’t think of any examples off the top of my head. Also, I’m sure it’s no coincidence that it's such a great word – a single syllable, yet with such beautiful combinations of consonants. (On a separate note, if you write the numbers 1 through 100 as words, you never need to use the "A" key!)
(For the remainder of this post, I'm going to break from my style-guide and write all numbers as numbers instead of words.) Currently, you may have noticed that the majority of the world (with the notable exception of computers) is working in base 10. Once we get to 9, we shove a 1 at the beginning and start counting again from 0. The main justification that I can see for using 10 is the number of digits on our hands and feet, probably explaining the double meaning of the word. If we were missing a finger on each hand, perhaps we’d be working in base 8 (which would be better than 10, but may cause issues for typists).
I once read a book about the importance of the number 9, and it seemed that all of the arguments explaining its significance relied on the fact that the world works in base 10. I couldn’t finish the book out of sheer frustration, at either the cheek or the stupidity of the author.
So now that we've moved out of the dark ages of LSD (sorry, Dad) there are 100 pennies in a pound (or cents/pennies in a dollar), 100 degrees between the boiling point and freezing point of water (or 180, depending on where you're from), 10 numbers at the top of your keyboard (although for some reason, twelve function keys) and so on.
If you think about the coinage in your UK purses/pockets (delete as applicable), it's a bit haphazard and not conducive for breaking down. A five pence piece cannot be changed into two pence pieces, nor a fifty into twenties. In the US, dimes cannot be given in exchange for quarters. A parent with a 10 dollar bill will have to resort to coinage to divide it between her four children, and will struggle further if there are only three.
Let's assume that the world shifts to base 12. After all, hens have (producing eggs in batches of 12) as have vintners (a 12-bottle case of wine), although bakers have broken with tradition, opting for the prime that is 13 – that’d be madness, btw.
So we'd need a couple more symbols to represent the numbers that we know as 10 (let’s call it &) and 11 (~). I’d like to think that these numbers would still be called eleven and twelve. Twelve would be written 10, fifty would be 42, seventy would be 5&, seventy one 5~, a hundred would be 84 etc. One hundred and forty-four would be written 100. There would be 144 pennies in the pound/dollar and twelve numbers at the top of your keyboard, nicely lined up with the function keys. In this wonderful new world, the parent with a new 10 pound note (twelve) would be able to divide it easily using the 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 pound notes.
Now this only sounds strange because we’ve all grown up using the decimal system. But, nowadays, who uses their fingers for counting? Most kids nowadays can’t do mental arithmetic in base 10, so why would moving to base 12 be any worse? (How old do I sound?)
I’m sure a whole bunch of computer scientists would advocate moving to binary to be in line with all of those machines that we rely on so much, but while it may have its benefits, numbers would get long very quickly (a hundred would become 1100100). If nothing else, PC screens would have to be made much, much wider to cater for all my spreadsheets.
Migration from decimal to duodecimal would be a challenge, but we seemed to manage OK in February 1971 on transition from LSD. (BTW, the very word duodecimal (2+10) is based on the fact that we work in base 10, so this would have to change to twelvimal.)
I’m sure everyone thinks I’m bananas, but no change there...
