Would centipede aliens use 100 base numerical systems?

[Deleted]

Would centipede aliens use 100 base numerical systems? Or 2 base system?
I just wonder. Also never discuss physics chemistry and mathematics over IMs or you end up creating topics like this one.
I reject your reality and substitute my own!

[Speaknoevil]

If I had to choose one, I would say 100.

Tangent: Also, do you have a picture for us? I'm very curious if bilateral symmetry would even be a thing in most alien species.

[Rorixis]

Considering that centipeds never have 100 legs I doubt that.

[smelltheglove]

they wouldnt necessarily think the same way we do. we have used more systems than base 10 btw. base 12 was also used at one point, which actually made more sense imo - it can easily be divided by half, third, and quarter as whole numbers, which makes trade a lot easier. not really much use now, though, we dont really care about partial numbers any more

[Rocket Surgeon]

Considering that centipeds never have 100 legs I doubt that.

Technically, "centipede aliens" wouldn't be the arthropods we know as centipedes at all, they'd be aliens with similar characteristics. And you know what OP meant in the first place.

OT: There would probably be many more possibilities depending on the aliens' specific anatomy. Are their bodies segmented like Earth's centipedes? If so, how many legs are there per segment? Do any of these appendages have hands, fingers, or other digits? Is there a clear distinction between "arms" and "legs"?

[Deleted]

They would probably use scent based math.

[Xarkan]

Would centipede aliens use 100 base numerical systems? Or 2 base system?
I just wonder. Also never discuss physics chemistry and mathematics over IMs or you end up creating topics like this one.
I reject your reality and substitute my own!

Ehmn

Not all human cultures have used base 10 as far as i know.. so why would the number of digits determine the base of digits :P

[Kalyyn]

We actually had cultures here on Earth that used base 1 (very early humans), base 5, base 6, base 8, and base 12 at one point or another.

[Xarkan]

We actually had cultures here on Earth that used base 1 (very early humans), base 5, base 6, base 8, and base 12 at one point or another.

Yeah well i was too lazy to google it so i just say "as far as i know" :P

[Itisamuh]

What a strange thing to think about.

[Tacotruck]

I'd guess they would have something between base 2 and base ~20 depending on other, possibly anatomical, reasons. Base 100 would seem to me to have too many individual numerical symbols to be useful for writing down numbers. Really most anything past 20 or so individual digit symbols seems like it would become unwieldy.

Again assuming the numerical base has some kind of anatomical connection, I'd guess a 100 limbed bilaterally symmetrical being would have it's limbs grouped into some sort of subsets, and i'd make a guess that the digit base would be related to the number of limbs in one of those subsets.

[Kalyyn]

What a strange thing to think about.

You won't think it's so strange when you're desperately trying to learn base 100 while on a slave ship to the Arcturus system!

Nobody in this thread will get that joke...

[Deleted]

You won't think it's so strange when you're desperately trying to learn base 100 while on a slave ship to the Arcturus system!

Nobody in this thread will get that joke...

Do you need a Mass Effect field to get the joke?

[Bigface]

We use base 10 and we have 2 legs. Why would centipedes use 100 because they have 100 legs?

[Kalyyn]

Do you need a Mass Effect field to get the joke?

Lol, it was something we were talking about in a technology thread earlier

But now that I think about it, slavers from Arcturus may have actually been a thing in Mass Effect...