Abstract
Historically, to describe numbers, some cultures used bases much larger than our usual base 10, namely, bases 20, 40, and 60. There are explanations for base 60, there is some explanation for base 20, but base 40—used in medieval Russia—remains largely a mystery. In this paper, we provide a possible explanation for all these three bases, an explanation based on the natural need to manage large groups of people. We also speculate why different cultures used different bases.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation grants 1623190 (A Model of Change for Preparing a New Generation for Professional Practice in Computer Science), and HRD-1834620 and HRD-2034030 (CAHSI Includes).
It was also supported by the program of the development of the Scientific-Educational Mathematical Center of Volga Federal District No. 075-02-2020-1478.
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Aguilar, S.R., Kosheleva, O., Kreinovich, V. (2023). Why Base-20, Base-40, and Base-60 Number Systems?. In: Ceberio, M., Kreinovich, V. (eds) Decision Making Under Uncertainty and Constraints. Studies in Systems, Decision and Control, vol 217. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16415-6_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16415-6_9
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