2 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: xkcd: D.B. Cooper
What's wrong with "the highest single-digit number in the system is thirty seven"?
Comment by cdcformatc at 28/07/2014 at 20:07 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
'Thirty seven' has two digits. 37 in any base not base 10 is not 37. Base 36 you use 1-9 and a-z for digits, if you go to base 37 you run out of characters.
The highest single digit number in base 10 is 9. The highest single digit number in base 36 is Z. The highest single digit number in base 37 is (some glyph that doesn't exist in English).