Alternative Number System: Difference between revisions

* In the ''[[Fighting Fantasy]]'' book ''Rebel Planet'', the two-fingered Arcadians count in binary. Converting binary to decimal is necessary to solve a couple of puzzles, though the reader is fortunately provided with a handy grid.

* Centaurians in ''[[The Pentagon War]]'' have 4 tentacle-fingers on each of 4 hands. When a Centaurian named Torra Zorra reads that a cable's diameter is 3 x 10^-5 meters, we get this parenthetical aside:

* The Megarites of the ''[[Star Trek]]'' universe use base 8, according to [[Star Trek Ex Machina]].

 

** A throwaway comment in the episode "The Fifth Race" implies that the [[Precursors|Ancients]] counted in base eight.

** Also invoked when they nearly set off a Tobin mine by entering in the wrong code due to Daniel failing to factor in a zero into his translation. He argues the Phoenicians they were descended from never used a number zero, but Carter points out in order to program something as complex as a mine, the Tobin's would have ''had'' to have added a zero component.

* In [[The Frantics]]' sketch [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjFaKD9BuOc "Roman Numerals"] a Roman citizen is baffled by the new decimal system.

Customer: Well why don't you just '''say''' XLIV? Who can remember "forty-four?" }}

* In ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'', the [[Meaningful Name|Bynars]] use base 2.

* The aliens in ''[[Iji]]'' use a ternary number system.

* In the final boss fight in ''Portal'', [[G La DOS]] gives this line after taking a missile hit:

* There is a popular theory among [[Half Life]] fans that the Combine use a base-17 system, based on how [[Arc Number|prominent]] 17 seems to be. If nothing, it reinforces the [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|utterly alien]] nature of the Combine.

* The Kilrathi from ''[[Wing Commander (video game)|Wing Commander]]'' use Base 8 for their numbering system, given that they have a total of eight fingers. For the most part this isn't really mentioned much, but it's prominent in the dates for history of the Kilrathi war from their viewpoint as done in the manual for ''Armada'', "Voices of War".