Base 10, which we use every day, seems inevitable, inescapable, ever-present. And yet the question never goes away… Why not base 12?
The first answer that springs to mind—and the only one that holds up—is that we have ten fingers. Nor is the idea original: Aristotle himself had already thought of it 2,300 years ago, though without speaking of a base. He describes the phenomenon precisely:
> "Why do all people, barbarians and Greeks alike, count up to 10 rather than to some other number, such as 2, 3, 4 or 5, after which they would begin combining two numbers, five-one, five-two, just as they do ten-one, ten-two? […] Is it because 10 is a 'perfect' number? […] Or is it because all people are born with ten fingers?" (Problèmes, XV 910–911)
-
A widespread practice
----------------------
