Time and Numbers..

This Blog is for Kevin and I write these blogs to make my grand kids think.. What do we know about the watch we wear?
Watches like the one here, were invented 1500 years ago, The wristwatch on your arm was invented less than 100 years ago. Soon it is Remembrance's Day.. Well the watch is our gift from the war. The First World War, pilots and soldiers needed a quick method to know the time (for reports and actions beginning at the same time) without reaching into a pocket and the army asked for something to be invented. the wrist watch was invented and used and may service men came home with their watches.
The twelve hours on the clock are marked with numbers. But what are Numbers? They are symbols used to count.
How do we count... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and so on up to thousand or millions. but these symbols (numbers) that we use to count could also be other symbols.
The ten symbols we use for numbers, are zero and 1 to 9, and are called the Arabic Numerals . Because there are only 10 symbols used this is called a Base 10
The Romans who conquer most of the world in the time of Jesus Christ found these numbers more helpful than the system they were using which was called Roman Numerals.
During the time of Jesus, the civilized world was using Roman numbers which use 7 symbols. "I", "V", "X" "L", "C", "D" and "M". Today, we sometimes see them on a clock and watches as. I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X XI and XII (12) as on the photo watches. Here in Roman I is 1, V is 5, X is 10 and L is 50 and C is 100 (cent) so MMXI is 2011 and today's date is IX V MMXI. As there are only 7 symbols in the Roman numbers, we say that it is a BASE 7. The Romans changed it because in the Base 10,numbers after all 10 number are used (10, 11, 12, or 21,22, 23,). In Roman some of the symbols only get used later when a higher count is need (like C at 100 where CXI is 111)

But if we worked in a shoe store we would count our shoes in pairs. Left and Right or Gauche and Droite. So when we have 10 pairs we really have 20 shoes. One could say that there were only two symbols for the shoes (L and R or G and D) or this was like a Base 2 counting system. ( so L R, 1pair, LR 2pairs).

The most daily counting of BASE 2 is the computer. or called Binary.. Actually computers work like a light switch ( it is either on or off) .

And all a computer does if decide if electricity (very small) is there or not. So it checks if the bit is.. on (with current) or off (without current) and the computer switch. Because 3 bits are called a byte. and used by the computer to make a word or number. Because of 3 switches or a base 8. Base 8 because 3 switches can be on/ off and create a total of 8 different symbols. This is Octal System If the three switches are 1 for on and 0 for off then we can have.. 100, 101, 111, 000,001, 010, 011, 110.

Lets have some fun Kevin..
A clock has how many possible symbols.. 12 ..Right.. yes we use the numbers from 1 to 12 but see the watches above they have different symbols..I is base 12 because when we see other parts of a clock or time. like the 60 minutes and the 60 seconds we see the 60 is simply 5x12=60.
But our calendar is based on the earth orbit around the sun so the number of days are Lunar.. but our days are based on a 7 different day of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday..

Kevin how many others can you think of that I have not mention.. eggs, beer, What is a baker's Dozen (13). Hope you enjoy this test of Math and the Base system.