this post was submitted on 07 Dec 2023
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The metric system should be redone in base 12, and RPN should be the norm for teaching arithmetic.
I like base 12 a lot, but Reverse Polish Notation is a mess when you get up to working with polynomials.
With polynomials, you're moving around terms on either side of an equation, and you combine positive terms and negative terms. In essence, there's no such thing as subtraction. (Similarly, division is a lie; you're actually just working with numerators and denominators.)
Reverse Polish Notation makes that a mess since it separates the sign from its term.
Also, RPN draws a distinction between negative values and subtraction, but conceptually there is no subtraction with polynomials, it's all just negative terms. (Or negating a polynomial to get its additive inverse.)
But, yeah. It's a shame we don't use base 12 more.
That's super interesting. I adore RPN on caclulators and had never heard any drawbacks well-articulated.
Base 16 is superior and once you learn binary math, easier to divide and multiply.
This is incorrect, and you don't understand why base 12 is useful. However for binary operations, hex is great. But not for general counting.
RPN is a gateway to LISP