Publication Date
1-2017
Abstract
What is so special about numbers 10 and 2 that decimal and binary systems are the most widely used? One interesting fact about 10 is that when we start with a unit interval and we want to construct an interval of half width, then this width is exactly 5/10; when we want to find a square of half area, its sides are almost exactly 7/10, and when we want to construct a cube of half volume its sides are almost exactly 8/10. In this paper, we show that 2, 4, and 10 are the only numbers with this property -- at least among the first billion numbers. This may be a possible explanation of why decimal and binary systems are the most widely used.
Comments
Technical Report: UTEP-CS-17-04