this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
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[–] clutchmatic@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They only look different because 1/3 out of 1 can't be represented well in a decimal counting system.

[–] funnystuff97@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Right, it's only a problem because we chose base ten (a rather inconvenient number). If we did math in base twelve, 1/3 in base twelve would simply be 0.4. It doesn't repeat. Simply, then, 1/3 = 0.4, then (0.4 × 3) = (0.4 + 0.4 + 0.4) = 1 in base twelve. No issues, no limits, just clean simple addition. No more simple than how 0.5 + 0.5 = 1 in base ten.

One problem in base twelve is that 1/5 does repeat, being about 0.2497.... repeating. But eh, who needs 5? So what, we have 5 fingers, big whoop, it's not that great of a number. 6 on the other hand, what an amazing number. I wish we had 6 fingers, that'd be great, and we would have evolved to use base twelve, a much better base!