Re:Gimli Glider
by FabHK on Tuesday December 20, 2016 @03:20AM
(#13218302)
I enjoy the discussion, and agree that base 10 is suboptimal. Base 8, 12, or 16 would be preferable (8, 16 due to affinity to the binary system; 12 due to the factors). However, we are stuck with 10 for now. (Surely there's an argument against God here.)
If we lived in a base 8 or base 12 world, a radically rationalised version of the customary royal measures based on doubling or factors 8 or 12 might be preferable. But we are not.
> It is better to have multiple units for multiple purposes.
Why?
Differences in scale are easily accounted for with the prefixes:
mili, micro, nano, pico, femto, atto takes you down to 10^-18; with zepto and yocto you get to 10^-24.
kilo, mega, giga, tera, peta, exa takes you up to 10^18; with zetta and yotta you get to get to 10^24.
If we lived in a base 8 or base 12 world, a radically rationalised version of the customary royal measures based on doubling or factors 8 or 12 might be preferable. But we are not.
> It is better to have multiple units for multiple purposes.
Why?
Differences in scale are easily accounted for with the prefixes:
mili, micro, nano, pico, femto, atto takes you down to 10^-18; with zepto and yocto you get to 10^-24.
kilo, mega, giga, tera, peta, exa takes you up to 10^18; with zetta and yotta you get to get to 10^24.