The Scouts' Version of the A2

[Spinward Flow]

Counting by 5s is pretty much a reflexive action from grade school on, so why use anything more complex?

Because counting by 4s and 8s are equally valid (for Aslan, with only 4 digits per paw) ... and by 12s is ancient Solomani civilization (Sumerian?) and why we count time in terms of 12 hours before and after midday noon and midnight, 12 houses in the zodiac ... and so on.

Not everything needs to be done in 5s and 10s.
Simple (for humans)? Sure.
Ideal in ALL cases and circumstances? Not really.

 

[Grav_Moped]

If you look at the simplified mathematics set that CT uses. And consider that when CT was written scientific calculators weren't all that common. With that laying out the the numbers as presented the train of thought pretty much falls out in a mathematical sense.

Counting by 5s is pretty much a reflexive action from grade school on, so why use anything more complex?

Probably a coincidence, but perhaps not. I've proposed house-ruling that proportion (maneuver + power is 5% of ship tonnage per G, and MCr6 per 100G-Tons) to scale those drives down to small craft sizes because the math of it works even though the maneuver drive tonnage formula very much doesn't.

Because counting by 4s and 8s are equally valid (for Aslan, with only 4 digits per paw) ... and by 12s is ancient Solomani civilization (Sumerian?) and why we count time in terms of 12 hours before and after midday noon and midnight, 12 houses in the zodiac ... and so on.

Not everything needs to be done in 5s and 10s.
Simple (for humans)? Sure.
Ideal in ALL cases and circumstances? Not really.

Unless you have Aslan or ancient Sumerians playing Traveller, that's kind of beside the point. It's about the players remembering the "5s row" on the "times tables".

Using a base of 12 does simplify division by 2 and 3 (and 4 and 6 too, but that's included).

 

[mike wightman]

I am of an age where learning the twelve times table, the fourteen times table and the sixteen times table were very important. Prior to the mid-70s Imperial weights and measures, and the pre-decimal monetary system required a lot more memorisation of times tables...

CT 77 was a weird mix of Imperial and metric.

 

[whulorigan]

I am of an age where learning the twelve times table, the fourteen times table and the sixteen times table were very important. Prior to the mid-70s Imperial weights and measures, and the pre-decimal monetary system required a lot more memorisation of times tables...

In the USA we did memorize up thru the 12-times tables, but not the 16's despite the fact that we did use Imperial/US Customary measures for fluid-ounces/pints and avoirdupois-ounces/pounds. We never learned 14's because we either never had or we failed to retain the stone as a measure of weight.

 

[mike wightman]

Still to this day I know how tall I am in feet and inches, and how much I weigh in stones and pounds.

I would have to do maths to get my height and weight in french units.

 

[Vargr Breath]

Still to this day I know how tall I am in feet and inches, and how much I weigh in stones and pounds.

I would have to do maths to get my height and weight in french units.

Stones as a weight never caught on in the US. Like Fortnight rarely if ever used here.

 

[Condottiere]

I think it's a case of visualization.

If you have three six packs of beer, how many cans of beer do you have?

 

[Deldarius]

Depending on the brew, that would be considered a good start or it's time to get a new flatmate.

 

[whartung]

In the USA we did memorize up thru the 12-times tables,

Way back in 7th grade, we had a lesson on Base 12 math, we had the number 0-9 plus two other symbols (that, golly, I can't seem to recall) for 10 and 11 (they weren't A and B). It was clearly just to examine the idea of numeric bases, and since we didn't really have computers as a concept in the large public, we didn't use binary or hexadecimal.

Curious if anyone else had lesson plan like that back in the day.

 

[whulorigan]

Way back in 7th grade, we had a lesson on Base 12 math, we had the number 0-9 plus two other symbols (that, golly, I can't seem to recall) for 10 and 11 (they weren't A and B). It was clearly just to examine the idea of numeric bases, and since we didn't really have computers as a concept in the large public, we didn't use binary or hexadecimal.

Curious if anyone else had lesson plan like that back in the day.

Not in school, but I remember seeing something just like that on an educational TV program (with some symbols that I also don't quite recall for 10 and 11).

 

[coliver988]

Way back in 7th grade, we had a lesson on Base 12 math, we had the number 0-9 plus two other symbols (that, golly, I can't seem to recall) for 10 and 11 (they weren't A and B). It was clearly just to examine the idea of numeric bases, and since we didn't really have computers as a concept in the large public, we didn't use binary or hexadecimal.

Curious if anyone else had lesson plan like that back in the day.

only in college: having a CS degree meant I spent a lot of time in base 16 math (which was also why I loved Traveller being pseudo-base 16 for a lot of things!). And a fair amount of base 8 stuff, and of course, a lot of binary/base 2.

though I actually took a philosophy of mathematics class much later and it covered base 12 and how it was actually better for a lot of math stuff. If only we had 6 fingers (including thumbs as a finger for the pedantic out there)

 

[infojunky]

though I actually took a philosophy of mathematics class much later and it covered base 12 and how it was actually better for a lot of math stuff. If only we had 6 fingers (including thumbs as a finger for the pedantic out there)

Ever count the number of segments of the fingers? 4 fingers, 3 segments each with the thumb as a pointer. With both hands you can count up to a gross.... Yah I am a Fan of base 12 as well...

 

[infojunky]

Stones as a weight never caught on in the US. Like Fortnight rarely if ever used here.

We had a whole running gag in one of my cartography classes about rating things in furlongs per fortnight.

 

[PVernon]

When I owned a Hobby Shop we had a white board with the speed of light in furlongs per fortnight on it. It is still around here somewhere.

Asimov has much to to answer for!

 

[mike wightman]

The speed of light = 1.8026175 x 10^12 furlongs / fortnight

FFF system - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

My new go to system of measurements...

 

[Condottiere]

It's how the Ponii Express measures distances, and why they keep making short hops.

 

[Vargas]

An A2 is certainly more practical than a Donosev in some applications.