Thus, 723 in duodecimal = (7 x 144) + (2 x 12) + 3 units, or 1035. in the decimal system. The fourth number to the left of the semicolon represents 12³, or the number of 1728’s, the fifth digit ...

Humans, for the most part, count in chunks of 10 — that’s the foundation of the decimal system. Despite its near-universal adoption, however, it’s a completely arbitrary numbering system that emerged ...

I grew up in Russia and was raised on the metric system based on the decimal arithmetic. When we immigrated to the U.S., I had to learn a new to me (but, actually, very old) Imperial system of ...

TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. About the Archive This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online ...

Michael A. Lombardi, a metrologist in the Time and Frequency Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colo., takes the case. In today's world, the most widely used ...