Base 60 extension

[joakim]

(Sorry if this is not the right place, but I don't know where else to post this.)

I just had a crazy idea: A base-60 version of the Iñupiaq numerals with base-20 as a sub-base of base-60. In other words, three bases in one:

base-5 -> base-20 -> base-60

That sounds complex, but 5 × 4 × 3 = 60, so you just need to add 2 more characters to get base-60.

Those could be lines drawn as a L enclosing an Iñupiaq numeral. Something like this (imagine they hold an Iñupiaq numeral):

  = 0 to 19
_ = 20 to 39
L = 40 to 59

Numbers 0-19 are just the Iñupiaq numerals. But instead of \o for 20, you'd write o̲ (o meaning Iñupiaq 0 until it gets Unicode support). Base-10 21 is base-60 \̲, 22 is V̲ and so on.

Nice for clocks and such. base-60 > base-12, so bring it on, dozenalists 😏

Update: Improved system in comment below using only Unicode combining characters

[Fuseteam]

wait how would 40 be then?

[Fuseteam]

ah nvm reread; so an underline for 20 and an additional | for 40 the issue is iñupiaq numbers are designed to be written without lifting a pen among other rules.

an extension should follow the same rules xD

[joakim]

40 is L with an Iñupiaq 0 in it, which you figured out :)

You are right, ideally it should follow the same rules. That's hard to do when the lines can start/end in different places though. I also realized that a line below the number makes underlining numbers sort of problematic :) Not to mention that the numerals are becoming very dense.

Honestly, I don't really like this crazy first draft of an idea. It should be much simpler and elegant.

[joakim]

Maybe dots above? Doesn't get any simpler than dots. Quick to "dot" and quick to read. Deviates from the original numerals, but so does this whole base-60 extension anyway.

07 =  (no dots above the 7 numeral) 27 = ̇ (one dot above the 7 numeral) 47 = ̈ (two dots above the 7 numeral)

Screenshot: It's very intuitive how one dot means 1 × 20 and two dots means 2 × 20.

More examples:

I used U+0307 (COMBINING DOT ABOVE) and U+0308 (COMBINING DIAERESIS). Above and not below because the numerals are "big endian" when read from top to bottom.

A cool outcome of using those Unicode combining characters is that you don't need 60 characters to represent 60 numerals. This font doesn't need an extension! The issue can be closed, it's all good! Base-60 is already supported 🎉

[joakim]

Reopening in case more people actually stops by this issue queue, see this and has something to say. Could be a dozenalist, who knows.

Babylonians would love this.

[Fuseteam]

it works with the font? really? the dots above definetely more elegant an flows better than the lines below hmm

also even if the issue is close people can still comment fwiw a closed issue just means it's resolved

[joakim]

It works great in my text editor, just like in the screenshot. I'm glad I found those dots, Unicode is really neat!

I wanted to keep the issue visible in the queue to get more feedback :) If the project owner wants it closed, I'll be fine with that too.

[joakim]

Some more examples of base-60 Iñupiaq numerals.

From 3600 to 1.0077696e16 without breaking a sweat:

More familiar numbers:

Notice the pattern?

And two fun ones: 45 seems concerned about base-60: But 50 looks like it couldn't care less:

[joakim]

This is my phone number (I think):

You're welcome to call me if you figure it out :)

You need to figure out my country code too, which may be harder.

[Fuseteam]

I wanted to keep the issue visible in the queue to get more feedback :) If the project owner wants it closed, I'll be fine with that too.

ah i see guess that's fine

am i reading that right? is that a 9 digit number?

[joakim]

Should be 8 digits

[Fuseteam]

i assumed all the ones with a dot is 2 digit number so yeah :p

[joakim]

That would be too easy :) It's one big number with positional notation.

[Fuseteam]

ah lmao good one xD

[joakim]

I'm back with more crazy ideas. This time, what would a base-60 Iñupiaq currency (cash) look like?