Decimal arithmetic, was Re: Python GUI app to impress the boss?

[John Roth]

"Chris Gonnerman" <chris.gonnerman at newcenturycomputers.net> wrote in
message news:mailman.1033614847.11267.python-list at python.org...
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Christian Tismer" <tismer at tismer.com>
>
>
> > (On bases: Actually, the primes (2, 3, 5) would give a quite
> > nice numeric base. They have lots of nice properties
> > concerning harmony, and the multiples of the prime factors
> > produce numbers people consider as "nice", most of the time.
> > So my number base would be at least 30 :-) )
>
> Didn't the ancient Babylonians use 60?  I've read we have
> them to blame for 360 degrees in a circle.

They actually based things on 360 (close approximation to
the number of days in a year.) Using 60 cut the number of
actual numbers they had to deal with down to something
more reasonable.

And that was for "scientific" computation. Commercial
computation, IIRC, used much simpler arithmetic. I have
yet to see an abacus or counting table that was base 60!
>
> Just has another factor of 2... they must have been pretty
> sharp mathematicians.

John Roth
>
> Chris Gonnerman -- chris.gonnerman at newcenturycomputers.net
> http://newcenturycomputers.net
>
>