… I would say that’s more about 10 and 12 having their on words, we don’t say ten two, it’s a bit of a shortcut? Then after 16 we stopped caring and didn’t make new words, sticked to 10 7, 10 8, 10 9 for some reason, that IS weird. Unless you take into account that base 10 wasn’t always the norm and maybe it made sense to have dedicated words for numbers up to 12 or 16 because they were commonly used quantities or alternative counting bases idk. See I can find (blurry memories of, needs sources) good reasons ;p
The point being people say 4 20 12 but only think 92.
I don’t think a different base explains things really well. Even though the way you guys count to 16 may point to a hexadecimal system, but then all the higher numbers would have to work entirely different.
It’s at least an inconsistent mix of systems.
But of course you don’t do maths in your head and it all just boils down to words for numbers, that you simply know. That’s just how language works, and a lot of language starts to become weird, if you think about it too much. Doesn’t mean we can’t have fun teasing each other about it. ;)
I can let you get away with the first part about 4x20 just becoming the word for 80, but with this one, you’re just fooling yourself and others.
If it were just another word for ninety, than ninety-two would be (4x20+10)+2 instead of 4x20+12 And it works that way up to 96.
Just stop making excuses and own the weirdness.
… I would say that’s more about 10 and 12 having their on words, we don’t say ten two, it’s a bit of a shortcut? Then after 16 we stopped caring and didn’t make new words, sticked to 10 7, 10 8, 10 9 for some reason, that IS weird. Unless you take into account that base 10 wasn’t always the norm and maybe it made sense to have dedicated words for numbers up to 12 or 16 because they were commonly used quantities or alternative counting bases idk. See I can find (blurry memories of, needs sources) good reasons ;p The point being people say 4 20 12 but only think 92.
I don’t think a different base explains things really well. Even though the way you guys count to 16 may point to a hexadecimal system, but then all the higher numbers would have to work entirely different. It’s at least an inconsistent mix of systems.
But of course you don’t do maths in your head and it all just boils down to words for numbers, that you simply know. That’s just how language works, and a lot of language starts to become weird, if you think about it too much. Doesn’t mean we can’t have fun teasing each other about it. ;)