Even though as a society the shift is likely too expensive and hard to make happen, that doesn't make it less true.
10 is divisible by 2 and 5
Remember how easy it was to learn your 2 and 5 times tables? Just a nice repeating pattern.
2x: 0, 2, 4, 6, 8
5x: 0, 5
Well 12 is divisible by 2, 3, 4 and 6. That’s twice as many nice easy repeating patterns.
2x: 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, A
3x: 0, 3, 6, 9
4x: 0, 4, 8
6x: 0, 6
So now your times tables are easier to learn.
But this goes both ways, dividing becomes easier more often.
We typically round numbers to 1 or 2 significant figures in our heads. E.g. You think of $160,000, not $161,288.
Let’s say you have 11,000 of something, in Decimal you’d round it to 10,000 in Duodecimal you’d round it to 12,000.
Let’s say you have 12,000 of something, if you’re asked to halve it, third it, quarter it, or 1/6 it, the calculation is easy.
| 1/2 | 1/3 | 1/4 | 1/5 | 1/6 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Duodecimal | 6000 | 4000 | 3000 | 2400 | 2000 |
What does that look like with 10,000?
| 1/2 | 1/3 | 1/4 | 1/5 | 1/6 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Decimal | 5000 | 3333.3333... | 2500 | 2000 | 1666.6666... |
Not as clean. 1/5 is a bit nicer, but your left with a bunch of very odd numbers.
Duodecimal is more often easier to do simple math.
Notes:
- All numbers written in Decimal
- "A" used to represent 10 decimal
- "B" used to represent 11 decimal