# is Base 12 mathmatics easier? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 6, 2003, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-base-12-mathmatics-easier/153298 "2003-02-06T20:21:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![FranticMad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c68b51/32.png) [@FranticMad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FranticMad)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-base-12-mathmatics-easier/153298/21 "2003-02-06T22:41:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ultrafilter \* > \*\*Why octal and not hex? \*\* Hard to explain, but octal is easier to visualize, count on your fingers, and to memorize. I’m in the Octal Rules faction of society. ---
**Author:** ![Orbifold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/779978/32.png) [@Orbifold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orbifold)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-base-12-mathmatics-easier/153298/22 "2003-02-06T22:50:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ultrafilter \* > \*\*Why octal and not hex? \*\* Aside from what **FranticMad** just posted, octal seems to me to be a good balance between the size of the multiplication table (which in my mind rules out hexadecimal and duodecimal) and the length of the resulting numbers (which rules out binary). (Aside to **X~Slayer(ALE)**: I have actually seen serious arguments for converting to binary. Frederik Pohl wrote an essay on it once.) ---
**Author:** ![bcullman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bcullman/32/8207_2.png) [@bcullman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bcullman)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-base-12-mathmatics-easier/153298/23 "2003-02-06T22:59:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bup \* > \*\*No it wouldn’t. Gah I’m an idiot. > > If the number ends in 0,3,6,9; it’s divisible by 3. > > It’d be harder to tell if things were divisible by 5. \*\* It would, but if we lived in a base12 society, dividing things by 5 would be fairly unnatural. another way to thing about it is this: 0.5(base10) == 0.6(base12) ---
**Author:** ![MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_Master_of_Ceremonies)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-base-12-mathmatics-easier/153298/24 "2003-02-06T23:05:45Z")
The ancient Sumerians had a system that was base-12/base-60 and they all died. Coincidence, I think not. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2003, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-base-12-mathmatics-easier/153298/25 "2003-02-06T23:46:06Z")
Of course, if we were having this conversation in 1950, we probably wouldn’t be bringing up octal and hexadecimal. So many of us have had to think about bit patterns for binary computer representations that we’ve become acculturated to them. I’m not sure they are all that ideal for general use - factorability by only powers of two is a pain when you’re buying something at the grocery. BTW, the fact that there are 8 bits in a byte makes me choose hex over octal any day. Every two hex digits is a byte. I would a lot rather look at a dump consisting of: XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX than: oOO oOO oOO oOO oOO oOO oOO oOO oOO oOO oOO oOO where o is 0, 1, 2 or 3 and O is 0-7. I find it a lot more “natural” to parse relevant bit masks and so on out of hex than octal. 3 bit fields just seems “weird”. Except for character tables, of course, because somebody decided that those would customarily be octal. Of course, next I could do my little spiel about how much better off we’d be if we had settled on a 12 bit “byte” … ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-base-12-mathmatics-easier/153298/26 "2003-02-07T00:40:22Z")
Karma police, arrest this man. ---
**Author:** ![Sock\_Munkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Sock\_Munkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sock_Munkey)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-base-12-mathmatics-easier/153298/27 "2003-02-07T01:01:32Z")
Is there any indication that the human brain has a biological preference for any particular number system? ---
**Author:** ![js\_africanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-base-12-mathmatics-easier/153298/28 "2003-02-07T01:21:41Z")
You may enjoy this page. ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-base-12-mathmatics-easier/153298/29 "2003-02-07T03:09:23Z")
Hmm… I scored better on the fifths than I did on the half! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![FranticMad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c68b51/32.png) [@FranticMad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FranticMad)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-base-12-mathmatics-easier/153298/30 "2003-02-07T03:13:50Z")
**yabob** Sure, hex is great for dumps, and everything that implies. Octal is for real men doing real mathematics. Threes are natural. They keep a table steady while you’re dining with a date. A menage a trois would be just wrong with 16 people in the room. I rest my case. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-base-12-mathmatics-easier/153298/31 "2003-02-07T21:00:37Z")
Real Programmers write octal directly to core. They hand-hack opcode placement so binary that is a subroutine on the first iteration can be data on the second, and they aren’t afraid of writing self-modifying code. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-base-12-mathmatics-easier/153298/32 "2003-02-07T21:43:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Derleth \* > \*\*Real Programmers write octal directly to core. They hand-hack opcode placement so binary that is a subroutine on the first iteration can be data on the second, and they aren’t afraid of writing self-modifying code. > > 😃 \*\* …cause we love to watch a pipelined architecture make everything slower. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-base-12-mathmatics-easier/153298.md?page=1)