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[-] digger@latte.isnot.coffee 67 points 1 year ago

Fun fact: Ancient Egyptians used a base 12 for time (and in some other places) because we have have 12 segments on our index through pinky fingers. They used their thumbs as a placeholder or to count. That base 12 system then turned into the 24 hour clock system we use today.

[-] circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org 26 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

There's also evidence of an early base-12 system in use for some Indo-Europeans -- it's likely why the English morphology doesn't become compositional until 13:

Ten (not compositional)

Eleven (not compositional)

Twelve (not compositional)

Thirteen (related to three-ten)

Fourteen (relates to four-ten)

Etc.

[-] mySFWaccount@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 year ago

Cool! I never really thought of it that way.

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this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2023
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