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Re:The Ring-a-Ding Numeration System by Jim Henle by sblom on Tuesday April 05, 2022 @01:22AM (#30915555)
I have no idea why, but I love alternate number systems (p-adics, surreals, base -2, split-complex, etc.). This one is playful.

Anyone know where to find a rigorous maths treatment for it?

Re:The Ring-a-Ding Numeration System by Jim Henle by oh_sigh on Tuesday April 05, 2022 @02:01AM (#30915754)
Uh...isn't this just binary?
Re:The Ring-a-Ding Numeration System by Jim Henle by tromp on Tuesday April 05, 2022 @02:23AM (#30915867)
It's binary with the central dot/ding being the leading 1 and then toward the right

a ring is 0

a ring,ding is 1

The ring represents a doubling of its contents. The special case for the leading bit could be avoided by always having an innermost empty ring. That would also give you a better (i.e. visible) representation for 0. The addition rule ensures that you always have exactly 1 leading 0.

Re:The Ring-a-Ding Numeration System by Jim Henle by whatshisface on Tuesday April 05, 2022 @02:29AM (#30915898)
It's not binary because all of the intermediate results shown during the videos are also valid numbers. It's actually an (upside down so as not to spoil it for anyone) ˙ǝuo ɟo uoıʇıppɐ ʇuǝsǝɹdǝɹ sʇop ǝɥʇ puɐ 'oʍʇ ʎq pǝıןdıʇןnɯ sʇuǝʇuoɔ ǝɥʇ ɥʇıʍ sısǝɥʇuǝɹɐd ʇuǝsǝɹdǝɹ sǝןɔɹıɔ ǝɹǝɥʍ uoıssǝɹdxǝ ɔıʇǝɯɥʇıɹ∀
Re:The Ring-a-Ding Numeration System by Jim Henle by taejo on Wednesday April 06, 2022 @02:43AM (#30929131)
From the article:

> The rings must be nested. The innermost ring must have a ding. No region can have more than one ding. Those are the only rules.

According to these rules the intermediate results are not valid numbers

Re:The Ring-a-Ding Numeration System by Jim Henle by whatshisface on Tuesday April 05, 2022 @02:14AM (#30915822)
It's binary in "fully reduced" form, what's interesting are the graphical rules for addition, multiplication and reduction.

(They correspond to things you can do with the expanded algebraic representation of a base-2 number, Sum a_k 2^k, but that's a necessary prerequisite for such a number system to work. After all, a way of writing numbers that did not ultimately correspond to the existing ways of writing numbers would be wrong.)

Re:The Ring-a-Ding Numeration System by Jim Henle by progre on Tuesday April 05, 2022 @02:14AM (#30915824)
For addition I can see the binary addition at work. The ding "carries" if it get put in a ring that already has a ding by getting its own ring etc... For multiplication I just WAT
Re:The Ring-a-Ding Numeration System by Jim Henle by whatshisface on Tuesday April 05, 2022 @02:18AM (#30915839)
Take a couple expanded algebraic representations of base-2 numbers:

1×2 + 1×4 + 0×8 + 1×16, 1×8

and substitute the second for every 1 in the first,

8×2 + 8×4 + 0×8 + 8×16

then finally un-distribute,

(1×8)(1×2 + 1×4 + 0×8 + 1×16)

and that's why putting small copies of the second number in the place of every "ding" in the first number results in multiplication.

Re:The Ring-a-Ding Numeration System by Jim Henle by progre on Tuesday April 05, 2022 @02:27AM (#30915886)
Oh yeah, thanks!
Re:The Ring-a-Ding Numeration System by Jim Henle by JoeyBananas on Tuesday April 05, 2022 @09:36AM (#30918798)
I don't think there's anything resembling a unifying theory of alternative number systems. But it's a fun topic for sure.