#45686 Superbases

Fredjikrang · Post by **Fredjikrang** » Sat Jun 28, 2008 9:59 pm

I saw that this question posted today, and I was well pleased by Laser Jock's answer. I just wanted to congratulate and thank him.

Post by **Laser Jock** » Sat Jun 28, 2008 11:12 pm

Hey, thanks! (Also thanks to Chillylint for pointing out your post to me.) It looked intriguing, but I didn't realize it would be that hard to find concrete answers about its origin.

TheAnswerIs42 · Post by **TheAnswerIs42** » Sat Jun 28, 2008 11:36 pm

This question intrigued me as well. I often wondered why we separated off every three zeros. In my history of Math class, we talked about how the mind generally can only count objects easily for four or less, and that is part of why we cross off the fifth tick mark rather than use five lines next to each other. (Try it- if you put four lines, you glance at it and know it is four, but if it is five, you usually have to count them off to know there are five.) So it would seem that we should have used sets of four zeros instead of sets of three. I guess that, as with a lot of things, someone just started doing it and we all followed suit without knowing why.

But yeah, kudos! I had never heard of a superbase before, but it makes perfect sense.

Post by **Laser Jock** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 12:35 am

I'm actually trying to track down a more-official source for this. The Wikipedia page is, sadly, not cited at all. Although I believe most of the material on there is probably true (and some of it definitely is, like the various number systems they list), I don't like having no sources. Hopefully I can dig something up. (Fortunately, Wikipedia gives me longer than 100 hours.

)

Fredjikrang · Post by **Fredjikrang** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 5:05 pm

Yeah, despite the lack of really authoritative answers, I thought your answer was well thought out and researched. It is things like that that can really make my day.

Darth Fedora · Post by **Darth Fedora** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 8:12 pm

To me, it was sort of the quintessential Board question and answer. You know, the question applied to everyone and it was asked out of curiosity rather than desperation. The answer was clearly explained, contained a bit of logical speculation, and had a nice pop-culture reference. It wasn't really extraordinary or anything, but I really enjoyed it because it's just so classically 100 Hour Board.