397
edits
Changes
From Delgar
no edit summary
The people of Delgar use '''octal math'''. This is because of the way they count on their fingers, counting 1-4 on the fingers then raising thumb and counting again for 5-8, then using the other hand to count to a total of 16 on both hands (or 64 in the positional style, where the left hand is counted as 8x the shown value).
{| class="wikitable"
The people of Delgar use '''octal math'''. What this means is that they write the number 7 with one symbol ("7") but they write the number 8 with two symbols ('10"). If you've ever studied numeric bases for some reason (probably computer science) you probably already understand this, but in case it's confusing, here's the basic idea:
|+
!Number
!Thumb
!Index
!Middle
!Ring
!Pinky
|-
|1
|down
|up
|down
|down
|down
|-
|2
|down
|up
|up
|down
|down
|-
|3
|down
|up
|up
|up
|down
|-
|4
|down
|up
|up
|up
|up
|-
|5
|up
|up
|down
|down
|down
|-
|6
|up
|up
|up
|down
|down
|-
|7
|up
|up
|up
|up
|down
|-
|8 (10<sub>8</sub>)
|up
|up
|up
|up
|up
|}
What's with that "10<sub>8</sub>" you ask? In writing, they write the number 7 with one symbol ("7") but they write the number 8 with two symbols ('10"). If you've ever studied numeric bases for some reason (probably computer science) you probably already understand this, but in case it's confusing, here's the basic idea:{{Note|The remainder of this article is about octal itself, which is a real thing. For more information, consult [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octal the other wiki].}}
In decimal (the numbers you know and love) we have 10 different symbols for numbers: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. When counting, after passing 9, we have no individual symbol to write the number 10, so we write it with two symbols: one in the "ten's place" and one in the "one's place", like so:
In decimal (the numbers you know and love) we have 10 different symbols for numbers: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. When counting, after passing 9, we have no individual symbol to write the number 10, so we write it with two symbols: one in the "ten's place" and one in the "one's place", like so:
