We then work on short conversion programs in python. If anything they come out of it with a better understanding of multiple number bases... but I think we could also learn some things about sorting with some adaptation.

I have a worksheet where you add, subtract, multiply and divide words in HEX and fifth graders find this VERY amusing.

Things like D6FD-CAFE=BFF

(If you know of any good hex math problems like this please share as I collect them. )

I asked chatGPT to make some problems for me. It couldn't understand what I was asking for.

Also they have put up a new paywall today you get five chats a day. Let's see how many people sign up.

(I will write a program to make some amusing problems for me, I already have an English dictionary I use for my "wordle cheating" programs... this should be fun.)

@futurebird
It's not my main objection to generative "AI" but I think a lot of people miss how much more fun it is to work things out yourself. It's sold as saving time or effort, but it's also saving you from having certain (admittedly nerdy) kinds of fun, and I don't want saved from that.

I have a worksheet where you add, subtract, multiply and divide words in HEX and fifth graders find this VERY amusing.

Things like D6FD-CAFE=BFF

(If you know of any good hex math problems like this please share as I collect them. )

@futurebird

Why cuneiform and base 3 ?

I have a worksheet where you add, subtract, multiply and divide words in HEX and fifth graders find this VERY amusing.

Things like D6FD-CAFE=BFF

(If you know of any good hex math problems like this please share as I collect them. )

I have a worksheet where you add, subtract, multiply and divide words in HEX and fifth graders find this VERY amusing.

Things like D6FD-CAFE=BFF

(If you know of any good hex math problems like this please share as I collect them. )

I'm really excited about how well one of my new lesson ideas for fifth grade CS is working out.

I teach them to count in binary early in the class which they LOVE. In the new lesson I have seven sets of cards with numbers and symbols on them from:

binary
hexadecimal
base 3
base 3 but with different symbols
base 5 but with different symbols
cuneiform
decimal

Each set of cards contains numbers from 1 to 150. Students put them in order and match symbols of the same value.

It's chaos.

“why don’t the ancient ones have a zero?”

twas not invented then, my child

@shortstories @futurebird
Why not?

@n1vux @futurebird

The writing system has so many rules and symbols it might be more difficult than Egyptian Hieroglyphics which are more difficult than modern Chinese with it's pictograms

And also more difficult than ancient Greek, ancient Hebrew or any ancient form of any modern language that is based on a ancient dead language

Where the ancient language forms are usually more difficult than the modern forms for the same language

Is why not

I just added in the cuneiform with the other number systems on a whim, not really thinking about the implications of it not having a zero (really, I forgot that they didn’t have zero it is a base 60 system, They *do* use place value, but with great ambiguity: it’s one of the things that makes translating old numeric tablets difficult.)

This caused many excellent questions!

I just added in the cuneiform with the other number systems on a whim, not really thinking about the implications of it not having a zero (really, I forgot that they didn’t have zero it is a base 60 system, They *do* use place value, but with great ambiguity: it’s one of the things that makes translating old numeric tablets difficult.)

This caused many excellent questions!

I just added in the cuneiform with the other number systems on a whim, not really thinking about the implications of it not having a zero (really, I forgot that they didn’t have zero it is a base 60 system, They *do* use place value, but with great ambiguity: it’s one of the things that makes translating old numeric tablets difficult.)

This caused many excellent questions!

@futurebird
place value without zero seems almost as confusing as semantic distinctions between tabs and spaces.

@futurebird Have you tried balanced systems, e.g. where digits can have values of -5 to 5 (base 11)?

@apophis @futurebird @llewelly I mean, worse has been done [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitespace_(programming_language) ].

@futurebird cool! But don't forget that ancient mesoamerican civilizations like the Maya did have a numeral for zero which is often glossed over in eurocentric histories. I'm not sure exactly when this developed but I think it was around the dawn of the common era.

Maya numerals - Wikipedia

(en.wikipedia.org)