Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Mathematics/2013 October 18

= October 18 =

Pronunciation of numbers in other bases
Has anyone devised a standard general system on how to refer to numbers written in any base? Double sharp (talk) 11:26, 18 October 2013 (UTC)
 * I was taught that unless it's base ten, you list the digits, so 4678 is "four six seven base eight", and never "four hundred (and) sixty seven base eight". Rojomoke (talk) 11:55, 18 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks. Indeed it's clear and readily extendable.
 * My original idea was that it would be like decimal nomenclature except you changed the names of the powers of the base – in your case I was picturing a reading like "four sixty-fours, six eights (and) seven", with maybe special changed names because "sixty-four" is decimal-centric. Have you ever heard this kind of reading? Double sharp (talk) 12:54, 18 October 2013 (UTC)
 * No I haven't, and it would seem rather cumbersome and redundant, as the values of the positions are implicit. Rojomoke (talk) 14:28, 18 October 2013 (UTC)
 * They are often referred to by numeral prefix + ary numbers (such as ternary numbers, if they are represented in the ternary numeral system). --  Toshio   Yamaguchi  12:05, 18 October 2013 (UTC)


 * I've often heard people say something like 1816 as "eighteen hex", and my understanding is that this is wrong. The digits should be said individually.  Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 15:19, 18 October 2013 (UTC)


 * I agree. It's as wrong as seeing 37.11 and saying "thirty-seven point eleven". --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  21:48, 18 October 2013 (UTC)


 * Okay, I'll bite. I assume you meant 37.11 in base 10. What's wrong with saying "thirty-seven point eleven" when you mean "thirty-seven and eleven hundredths? Duoduoduo (talk) 22:55, 18 October 2013 (UTC)


 * For the same reason that you wouldn't call 37.02 "thirty-seven point two". "But it has 2 hundredths after the point", I hear you cry. Yes, but it's rather a different animal from 37.2, which has 20 of the little buggers. --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  23:12, 18 October 2013 (UTC)


 * Since "2" is a single-digit numeral, "thirty-seven point two" is naturally interpretable as "37.2", so that's why I wouldn't pronounce "37.02" as "thirty-seven point two" -- to avoid the ambiguity. The ambiguity can be avoided by saying "thirty-seven point 'o two" (where of course "zero" has been abbreviated as "'o"). Likewise, "thirty-seven point eleven" is naturally interpretable as "37.11", and not as "37.011".Duoduoduo (talk) 23:28, 18 October 2013 (UTC)


 * As a purist in such matters, I adhere to a higher standard than "You can say anything you like as long as it isn't ambiguous". That is a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition.  Look, sure, if you were involved in a particular discussion where the only decimals under consideration were to exactly 2 places, and the decimals represented hundredths and nothing but, then you can get away with "thirty-seven point eleven".  But I wouldn't recommend it for general use, that's all.  --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  00:22, 19 October 2013 (UTC)


 * Do you have a cite for any of this? I'm not seeing where the problem would be, nor have I ever seen anything against it.Phoenixia1177 (talk) 03:39, 19 October 2013 (UTC)


 * ,, . --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  10:19, 19 October 2013 (UTC)


 * I apologize, I misread the conversation! I was taking care of something else and distracted. I thought you were saying 37.02 couldn't be pronounced as "thirty seven point oh two", but that you had to say "...and 2 hundredths", or some such. Completely my fault. At any rate, 37.11 as "thirty seven point eleven" would convey the number correctly, but, by the same token, writing "teh" in place of "the" wouldn't make your writing harder to understand- that doesn't mean you should. Again, my fault, I'm in complete agreement with you:-)Phoenixia1177 (talk) 10:43, 19 October 2013 (UTC)


 * I've heard someone saying "seven point two dollars" to mean "seven dollar two cents". I guess some people only ever run into the decimal point in the context of cents, so to them the "obvious" interpretation might be as a separator (but I guess then they may also write $7.2 meaning $7.02). So I would challenge Duoduoduo's "naturally interpretable". — Quondum 15:09, 19 October 2013 (UTC)


 * In computer programming, where numbers in base 16, 8 and 2 are more commonly used than in any other field of human endeavor, there is a convention of writing 0x in front of numbers in base 16, 0b in front of binary numbers and (confusingly) just putting a leading zero in front of numbers in base 8. This isn't particularly nice - but it's necessary to have a convention that works in simple ASCII text files where you can't use a subscript.  Computer programmers use base 16 numbers a LOT - and multiple ways of pronouncing them have shown up.  Mostly we say the word "hex" either before or after reading out the number - so we'll write "0x12AB" and say "hex one two ay bee" or "one two ay bee hex" or "oh ex one two ay bee".  However, we'll often leave out the word "hex" when there are letters in the number or where the context is "obvious".
 * SteveBaker (talk) 21:55, 19 October 2013 (UTC)