> > And I have to say, any girl saying "My best event is base-12 math" has got *my* attention. :-)
> >
> > Trav"didn't read the whole transcript, but that line caught my eye"holt.
>
> This got me thinking a bit. Why does this get my attention?
> ([snip])

> Through programming I've learned about the concepts of different base number systems. I've also learned that most girls aren't interested in programming *at all*. Most guys I know aren't, either, but the people I know who are into programming are invariably guys, but still wouldn't know what the expression 'base-12 math' means. I'm over average interested in math, but I still had kind of a hard time getting these concepts in the start, so that's understandable.
>
> So a *girl* who knows what base-12 math is, is not as much impressive as it is surprising and unusual to me. (I don't mean to say it's not impressive, I would be a bit impressed by *anyone* saying that, really.)
>
> I think girls are just as good as math as boys, if not better. But I also think that most girls just aren't interested enough in it to pursue that line of education. Girls are mostly drawn towards social jobs, I think. While guys like to put numbers in system and make it all work out to be zero in the end, girls like to juggle people, feelings, social situations etc. and make it all work out nicely. Guys like to put material things in order, while girls care about the immaterial stuff. Or am I wrong?

Yeah, it's the general vs. the specific (or, if you prefer, the "global" vs. the "single-case". Can I lay it on thick, or what? :) Actually, I'm not a programmer, though I've thought I'd like to get into that someday. I just got interested in base-12 because I'm a very spatial person. I was thinking about how a number system could render a 3-D environment, and make the arithmatic a bit easier. I learned about bases in a strange way. You know the calculator that comes with Windows? Well, it can do bases... octa, hex, and binary. (But not base-12! D'oh!) I got to fooling around with that, and before I knew it, I figured that base-12 would be the easiest, seeing as it's divisible by not only 2, but also 6, 3, AND 4. Consider geometry in that! Rotation by 1/3 AND 1/4 would be a piece of cake. (I've also learned that math in any base that's a prime number is HARD.)

I know I'm uncommon for a lady. (My preferred term.) It's my goal to major in chemistry in college- I've already been warned that it'll be "me and the boys." (Man, kind of like the Navy!)

Oh well... off to my current diversion: trying to figure out when the Galilean moons of jupiter will allign perfectly.

-Jann"thinking in X, Y, AND Z"ette

PS: if it impressed you, does that mean I can name one of the new digits after myself? :)