>>2017849I learned the notion of base in a numerical system at the age of 8, at school. and was not impressed to learn that base 10 is just an arbitrary choice for a base. In fact base 2 is more efficient for a computer because it reduces the number of states for a digit to the minimum, and it simplifies the basic arithmetic operations computations, therefore reducing csts and bettering efficiency.
In the early days of computers, some machines with base 3 were used and produced apquite good results. I read somewhere that the most efficient base for reducing the cost of operations would theoretically be e (2.71828+epsilon) if possibke, so 2 and 3 were tried as best approaching solutions. 2 won mainly because it reduces the risks of errors of a value.
For human beings, the most useful bases are those that are divisible by many numbers while stsying low enough for humain brain limitations. So prime numbers are bad choices and are rarely used. On the contrary, 12 is arguably one of the most useful bases, because it let you divide quickly by 2, 3, 4. A lot of civilizations used base 12. This explain why there are 12 months in a year and 24 hours (2*12) in a day. If you want to divide easily by 2, 3, 4, 5, then base 60 is good. Some culture used base 60, and nowadays it explains why there are 60 minutes in an hour.
Also, base 8 and base 16 are used by programmers mainlupy because numbers written in these bases are easier to read and write (and shorter) than numbers in base 2.
