How Does The Forgotten Number System - Numberphile Work?

Imagine you have a special way to count using only your fingers, but it’s extra special because it uses a twist that most people don’t know about.

Numberphile explains the "Forgotten Number System" by showing how ancient people counted in groups of 12, just like we might count our toes or the hours on a clock. It's kind of like if you had 12 candies and always grouped them together, that’s how you’d think about numbers!

In this old system, they used base 12, which is different from our usual base 10 (the one we use every day with fingers). So instead of counting like 10, 20, 30… they counted like 12, 24, 36…

It’s as if you had a bag of marbles and always took out 12 at a time, that's base 12! If you kept track of how many bags you filled, that’s how this old number system worked.

People started using base 10 more because we have 10 fingers. But some things still use base 12 today, like hours on a clock or the months in a year! That means the forgotten number system never really disappeared, it just went to sleep for a while. Imagine you have a special way to count using only your fingers, but it’s extra special because it uses a twist that most people don’t know about.

Numberphile explains the "Forgotten Number System" by showing how ancient people counted in groups of 12, just like we might count our toes or the hours on a clock. It's kind of like if you had 12 candies and always grouped them together, that’s how you’d think about numbers!