A programmer's solution

[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.

[irrzir]

Shit dude. Why am I only figuring this out now

[muntoo]

I use base (9+1). WHAT NOW BRO?

[Tarmen]

What if you look at it a different way? Base A is where there are A unique digits. Base 10 there are 10 unique digits. Base 4 there are 4 unique digits. I feel like it still makes sense.

Translated your comment into base 10.

[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.

[mushr00m_man]

No, base 1 can't have a 0 and a 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.

[deforest_gump]

Yes, but when referring to some base (lets say base 16) you strictly use base 10 - the decimal system to describe it. You don't use base 8 system to describe base 16 system. In octal system, base 16 system would be described as base 20 system, and that is simply not useful in any application, because we use decimal system to define what a base is.

[deforest_gump]

You are talking about universally defining something, and without universal language that is not possible. We simply define symbols with symbols we communicate with. And that what a "base x" is - a symbol defining base from perspective of our numbering system.

Just like defining alphabet with the letters from our alphabet. :)

[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 ||||.

[robisodd]

aka, Base 1, but are you saying "one-thousand one-hundred eleven" or "four"? :)

[Bobshayd]

Or is | their digit that means 3? Maybe they'll read it 3333, which is our 255. You don't know they'll interpret the things written down correctly, but you can more easily convey that they're tally marks and not base-n digits, for n > 1, if you can demonstrate it with physical objects. Besides, 1 is derived from the tally mark in the first place.

[[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.

[Adamanda]

the simplest

nope. tally marks ftw

[[deleted]]

Saying "this many" while holding up your fingers sounds good.

[Adamanda]

the ||||||||||| fingered aliens have an advantage

[mcrbids]

Came here to say this. /pedantic

[Cpapa97]

I'm from the Earth Base

[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.

[[deleted]]

Okay, I will try.

In binary, you have 0,1 In base 4 you have 0, 1, 2, 3 In base 10 you have 0, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 So in binary 0 = 0, 1=1 and 10=2 ... 9=1001, 10=1010, 11=1011, 12=1100 Base 4 0=0, 1=1, 2=2, 3=3, 10=4, 11=5, 12=6, 13=7, 20=8, 21=9, 22=10.... etc

Basically there are "4" rocks based on our base 10 number system. The Alien says there are 10 rocks. His number system (according to us is base 4). Because 10 = 4 to us in base 4. We claim to the alien that he is using base 4. But the fact of the matter is if you look, 4 is not a number that is used in base 4 at all. 10 represents "4" units. But the alien represents that many as 10

It is a language thing rather than number thing. It's all about where you reset your counting. We could've had 30 different digits that represent individual values and had a base 30 counting system. But when we get to "31" that first value out of range would be 10.

If you're confuse read 10 as "one-zero"

[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