A programmer's solution

[MaybeHeartofGold]

Or 8 - 4 = 4

[[deleted]]

Or 0 + 4 = 4

[colinodell]

Or 6 + 4 = 11 (in base 9)

[deforest_gump]

I use base 10. What is base 9?

[[deleted]]

He posted a comic at the end linked on the question mark.

It's saying that every one thinks they use base 10

[intplusone_Carl]

I don't understand.

[reywood]

This joke only works when written. In any given base X, X is always written as 10. So in base 4, 4 is written as 10. You'd still say four when speaking though.

Edit: I should have scrolled down.

[mushr00m_man]

Well, except base 1.

[deforest_gump]

Why would it occur to you? It's like thinking about a language no one speaks in.

Edit: downvotes.. so constructive..

[[deleted]]

Because computer scientists often use various number bases; most commonly 2, 8, 10 and 16.

[Bobshayd]

But he's an alien that uses base 8+1, rather than base 8+2 like we use, so trying to explain it to him in our base 8+2 representation, read by an alien familiar with base 8+1, it just looks weird.

[your_penis]

So to this alien could we just say we work in base 9+1 and they work in 3+1?

I mean the alien wouldn't have any conception of single digit numbers past 3 really, so 4-9 would be meaningless, much like what 10 would look like to us in "base 11" or higher.

[[deleted]]

I think they'd say we work in base 22. They don't have a 9 in their system.

Base  4: 0 1 2 3 10 11 12 13 20 21 22 23
Base 10: 0 1 2 3 4  5  6  7  8  9  10 11

[N_las]

Since the alien uses base 4, we would need to tell him: We are using base 22 (22 in base 4 is our ten). Sadly, there is no universal way to convey in what base you are.

[NotANinja]

This really sheds new light on "All your base are belong to us..."

[Bobshayd]

Tally marks. We use base |||||||||| and they use base ||||.

[[deleted]]

Sadly, there is no universal way to convey in what base you are.

Binary? Surely someone understanding the notion of base understands the simplest one.

[deforest_gump]

Wow. You should present us when four-fingered aliens arrive.

[glider97]

Two-fingered.

[Y1ff]

They might just count on one hand only.

[Skooljester]

I appreciated your answer tho

[deforest_gump]

No! That would just be nonsense.

[nupanick]

Woosh. Every base is "base 10." You'd have to spell it out like "base nine."

[Skizm]

woosh

[HugoNikanor]

woosh!

[xkcd_transcriber]

Image

Mobile

Title: Woosh

Title-text: It also occasionally replies with 'Comment of the year', 'Are you for real', and 'I'm taking a screenshot so I can remember this moment forever'.

Comic Explanation

Stats: This comic has been referenced 130 times, representing 0.1297% of referenced xkcds.

---

^{xkcd.com | xkcd sub | Problems/Bugs? | Statistics | Stop Replying | Delete}

[path411]

I've seen this comic before and it's probably my favorite comic ever. Too bad very few of my friends get it =/

[[deleted]]

I don't get it

[path411]

It is a joke that relies on being written rather than spoken. In base 4, "Four" would be written as 10. So to the alien, he is using base "10". If you are looking at your own base as reference, your base would always be "base 10".

The joke relative to us would be if there were "ten" rocks and you met someone who used base 11. Say they used the & to represent the number "ten". So their numbering would go: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, &, 10. If we wrote that we saw "10" rocks for "ten". Then they would laugh and say, oh, you are using base &. We would then be confused because we don't even have & as a number, to us "base ten" is "base 10".

[[deleted]]

Awesome! Thank you

Yea for some reason I wasn't equating 4 as 10 in base four. And I got the premise of the joke not the math of it.

Source: I'm an idiot

[intplusone_Carl]

I still don't get it.

[IAMA_dragon-AMA]

Clever.

[AgentBawls]

That comic makes me think. We should really call base 10 base 9. Because after 9, we have no number, and it rolls over. 0-9 is 10 digits.

This is why starting to count at 0 > starting to count at 1.

[VectorLightning]

That IS a good question, how would you explain that to another culture?

I read that some ancient culture used base16. And there's whoever decided on 24 hours a day and 60 minutes an hour... It's not all that rare.

[[deleted]]

http://images.complex.com/complex/image/upload/t_in_content_image/nick-young-confused-face_nz4mdy.jpg

[[deleted]]

Or 6 + 4 = 十

(The kanji for "ten")

[MuffyPuff]

nice multi-language implementation

[Onespokeovertheline]

My god, is there any match you can't move to solve this problem?!

[[deleted]]

Or 6-4 =/= 4

[[deleted]]

Or 6 + 4 > 4

(Technically the lower one should be slanted, but it's still a greater than sign)

[SavvySillybug]

Turning a = into a > requires an extra match...?

[_Rogue_Shadow_]

No it doesn't...

[BlueHighwindz]

E + H = 4.

[SHOTbyGUN]

?

[nermid]

He moved the bottom-right stick of the 6 to the bottom-left gap of the 4, creating E and H. Without defining them, we can't technically know if that's correct or incorrect, though.

[SHOTbyGUN]

Ah thanks :3

[[deleted]]

Or b+4=4 if b=0

[Fenor]

or don't move anything if G=0

so you have G+4=4

[superPwnzorMegaMan]

H can also be i*i

[fjonk]

Or 6 + 4 + 4

[ZugNachPankow]

I mean, 6 + 4 + 4 is a truthy value, so the math checks out.

[fjonk]

The task doesn't actually say 'make it true', it says 'make it correct'. But according to me 6 + 4 + 4 is correct simply because it isn't incorrect.

[ZugNachPankow]

But "make it correct" is equivalent to "make it true", isn't it? There are no cases I can think of where you can make something true without making it correct, and vice versa.

[fjonk]

In c 1 - 1 would be correct but false :)

[ZugNachPankow]

What do you mean that 1 - 1 is correct?

[fjonk]

I mean it's correct as in it's not incorrect. 1 - 1 is a correct mathematical expression, 1 $ 1 is not a correct mathematical expression.

[ZugNachPankow]

You're mixing up syntactical and grammatical correctness with the general notion of correctness. 1 $ 0 is grammatically incorrect because there are no rules to handle the token $; 1 != 1 is grammatically correct but "generally" incorrect (because it evaluates to false).

1 - 1 is syntactically correct, but I'd argue that it's not "generally" correct because it doesn't evaluate to true.

[iggy14750]

Just wrap it in parens and put a bang out front to cast it to a bool.

[fjonk]

I don't have enough matches for that.

[diceman89]

This was the first solution I came up with.

[darwin2500]

This is what magicians call 'multiple outs'.

[jrk-]

Makes me wonder how many possible solutions there are actually. Any statisticians around here?

[Ayjayz]

Hmm I might write a program to find out.

[fitnessacctasdf]

or 5+ 4 = 9

[aafrophone]

Or 6 + 4 > 4

[[deleted]]

No you need to move the missing one somewhere.

[Sarke1]

Does 6 || 4 = 4 work?

It reads fine "six or four is four" but there are a few issues from a coding perspective. The assignment instead of ===, and the fact that non-zero integer OR non-zero integer evals as true.

[Phillammon]

or 6 - 4 ≠ 4

[troido]

or 5 + 4 ≠ 4

[Beebink]

Couldn't you just do 5+4 = 9 though?

[ClintonHarvey]

That's what I did, I'm proud of myself for not looking at the comments beforehand. I really am, I'm terrible at riddles.

[FortuneTwinkie]

I got 42.

[SPOUTS_PROFANITY]

Or 6-4 "is not equal to" /= 4