Was in my car today at lunch listening to NPR, and the subject was PBS children’s shows. They were talking about the guy who wrote the “Schoolhouse Rock” series of multiplication table songs. “Three is a Magic Number” and so on. They didn’t mention my favorite, “Little Twelve Toes“. Here’s a chunk of it:
Now, if man Had been born with six fingers on each hand, He'd also have twelve toes, Or so the theory goes... Well, with twelve digits, I mean fingers, He probably would've invented two more digits When he invented his number system. Then, if he'd saved the zero for the end, He could count and multiply by 12's, Just as easily as you and I do by 10's. Now, if man Had been born with six fingers on each hand, He's probably count: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, dek, el, do. Dek and el being two entirely new signs meaning 10 and 11 - single digits. And his 12, do, would've been written: one - zero. Get it? That'd be swell, to multiply by 12.
They were teaching base-12 numbering, to elementary schoolkids! We don’t normally use base 12, although it would be somewhat practical, being more easily divisible (2, 3, 4, 6) than ten (2,5); of course it’s used in the major numbers of clocks and calendars (but not the minor numbers, or it would now be 14:2L on the 26th of December). We use base 2 (binary – 0=0 1=1 10=2 11=3 100=4), base 8 (octal – 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 10=8 11=9), and base 16 (hexidecimal – 0…9 A=10 B=11 C=12 D=13 E=14 F=15 10=16) in the computer, but mainly because that’s what’s easy for binary computers to understand.
By the way, I also learned that Mr. Rogers’ mom knitted all of his sweaters, one per year for Christmas. And was reminded that “King Friday the 13th” celebrated his birthday every Friday the 13th. Which I think is a good idea, maybe I’ll switch to that, as well as base 12. (Or maybe base 13?) I know I’ve decided to go personally off daylight savings time. So I’ll be an hour ahead (or is it behind, I can never be sure) all you daylight-savings-time-observing luddites. Perhaps I truly am ahead of my time.