Talk:Quinary

Pental
I just got a new calculator, Sharp EL-531WH, which supports base-5. They call it Pental. I wonder what the uses are. Anyway, maybe a redirect page for Pental should be created? KMS 13:09, 28 July 2007 (UTC)
 * A quick search finds many references for this usage; so I put the redirect in. As for its uses, a few discussions on the internet came to the reasonable conclusion it is used to help students comprehend the japanese abacus. Marcus erronius (talk) 19:22, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

"only true 5-25" language known"
The Luiseño language also uses pure base 5 counting for numbers between 25 and 100, according to Native American Mathematics by Michael P. Closs. (ISBN 0-292-75531-7), though sometimes either a count by 25s or a count by 20s can be used... -- AnonMoos (talk) 22:21, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Notability
I suggest the notability issue is discussed at category talk:Positional numeral systems.--Noe (talk) 09:54, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Gumatj
I may sound dumb but I was told that is base number systems the number that it is a base of isn't part of the order. The Gumatj numerals are 1-5 so wouldn't that be base 6? Zebudster (talk) 19:20, 26 October 2010 (UTC)
 * You are correct that a base 5 number system won’t have a digit for 5. Close inspection of the table will reveal that they cound from 1 to 4 using 1s, the 5 to 25 using 5s, then 25 to 125 using 25s. This is equivalent to counting by tens and hundreds, but with fives and 25s, respectively. Marcus erronius (talk) 19:22, 18 December 2010 (UTC)
 * I wonder why 5 alone is "wanggany rulu" and not "dambumirri" (seen in the higher numbers as a single word for 5)? Double sharp (talk) 11:47, 4 April 2013 (UTC)

alternative name
i was thinking apart from you guys and I thought that the name "pental" would be better. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.185.0.100 (talk) 01:01, 2 January 2014 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 29 November 2016
see Favonian's talk page. 95.49.119.240 (talk) 16:31, 29 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Empty request. You need to make your case here as to why the change should be made.  - GB fan 16:32, 29 November 2016 (UTC)
 * change  to  95.49.119.240 (talk) 16:39, 29 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Why? How does this improve the article?  - GB fan 16:40, 29 November 2016 (UTC)
 * more realistic 95.49.119.240 (talk) 16:43, 29 November 2016 (UTC)
 * How is it more realistic? What is unrealistic about the way it is right now?  - GB fan 17:05, 29 November 2016 (UTC)
 * It's simply better. 95.49.119.240 (talk) 21:44, 29 November 2016 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 19 December 2016
While it's said here that roman numeral system uses a base 10 with sub base 5, i have to say it is wrong since only positional systems actually have a base (also called radix). A base-5 system would have a single symbol for all powers of 5 which are 1;5;25;125;... and as you can see these roman symbols stand not for powers but of something like "powers of ten, 5 times" which are 5;50;500 or V;L;D. Now, about the base 10, I;X;C;M are indeed each the first successive powers of 10, but it's obviously not positionnal since theiy differ and are all mapped to an absolute value : A true base-10 system such as decimal uses a single symbol for any power of 10 (we could take 'I' if we wish, but we actually took '1') but that would of course imply a zero which roman numeral system lacks. The roman numeral system may actually be reffered to as an additive numeral system, but such things are not mathematically well-defined and therefore have no radix whatsoever. Now, I actually question myself about the statement that humans used to use an actual base-5 system... and I strongly suspect that it's not the case. Particularly, the mayan numeration was a true base-20 (positionnal) but each digit was noted using an additive notation (which actual differs in logic from the claimed "roman sub base"), and not a sub base-5. Unomadh (talk) 11:07, 19 December 2016 (UTC) More importantly, you have not cited reliable sources to back up your request, without which no information should be added to, or changed in, any article. - Arjayay (talk) 11:42, 19 December 2016 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: as you have not requested a specific change in the form "Please replace XXX with YYY" or "Please add ZZZ between PPP and QQQ".

What is a quinary digit called?
What is a quinary digit called? Like a binary digit is called a bit and a trinary digit is called a trit. What's it called? Thanks. 24.150.217.182 (talk) 14:03, 11 June 2017 (UTC)


 * There's no real reason why there has to be a special name. The majority of "quinary" systems are due to subdividing a decimal position into a binary position and a quinary position (or in the case of the Maya, subdividing a vigesimal position into a quaternary position and a quinary position). AnonMoos (talk) 23:53, 11 June 2017 (UTC)

Suggestion to Semi-Protect Positional System Articles
So, errm, this article was apparently unintentionally spammed by an IP user who Copy-Pasted from Omniglot: articles on base systems are quite prone to such spamming I think, and I'd like to suggest semiprotecting these articles. (Is there any good place to suggest this as a general lurker with a near-zero contribution?) -PerkeleenHullu (talk) 06:43, 18 February 2020 (UTC)


 * To discuss it, probably Talk:Numeral system, to formally request protection Requests for page protection... -- AnonMoos (talk) 09:31, 18 February 2020 (UTC)