> 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.)

You'd still have trouble dividing an angle in three by construction, though. :-) But I've thought the same thing myself before: Why 10? It's a bit impractical. I don't remember who it was who had a base-8 system (Arabic?), but I can't help thinking how much easier programming would be. Actually you *can* program in base-8, but you also have to get your mind used to it. And that's maybe the hardest part.

> 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!)

Heheh. When I was 9 years old, we moved from a town of a few thousand people to my parents' home town (or what it's called) where there are about 500 people, maybe. In my class, we were two boys and 10 girls! Too bad I was kind of a loner. :-)


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

Only if I get one of them, too.

Trav"one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, Travholt, Jannette, ten"holt.