Base 13
| Numeral systems by culture |
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| Positional systems by base |
| Decimal (10) |
| Non-standard positional numeral systems |
| List of numeral systems |
Base-13, tridecimal, tredecimal, or triskaidecimal is a positional numeral system with thirteen as its base. It uses 13 different digits for representing numbers. Suitable digits for base 13 could be 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, and C, although any 13 characters could be used.
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Base 13 in fiction [edit]
In the end of The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams, a possible question to get the answer "forty-two" is presented: "What do you get if you multiply six by nine?"[1] Of course, the answer is deliberately wrong, creating a humorous effect – if the calculation is carried out in base 10. People who were trying to find a deeper meaning in the passage soon noticed that in base 13, 613 × 913 is actually 4213 (as 4 × 13 + 2 = 54, i.e. 54 in decimal is equal to 42 expressed in base 13). When confronted with this, the author stated that it was a mere coincidence, famously stating that "I may be a sorry case, but I don't write jokes in base 13." See also The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything.
In The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks, the Strangers—supernatural antagonists—use a base 13 numbering system, which dictates how many of each hierarchical order can be summoned into the world at once. To summon 13 of any order, one member of the next higher order must be summoned and mastered,
Base-13 calendar [edit]
The Maya calendar used a base system (the trecena), with 13×20 days for the Tzolkin cycle.[2]
Base-13 used in mathematics [edit]
The Conway base 13 function is used as a counterexample to the converse of the intermediate value theorem that is discontinuous at every point.[3]
References [edit]
- ^ The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, by Douglas Adams
- ^ Harvey M. Bricker, Victoria R. Bricker, Anthony F. Aveni, Michael P. Closs, Munro S. Edmonson, Floyd G. Lounsbury and Eric Taladoire (1983-02). Classic Maya Prediction of Solar Eclipses. JSTOR 2742481.
- ^ Willie Wong (2010-07-20). "Conway’s Base 13 Function".
