#number system

I’ve hit a sort of wall so I’m going to post one of my scrapped ideas.

here’s a scrapped number system I made. I wanted to use numbers to describe coordinates (and maybe structure sizes) but couldn’t think of a good one that was easy to read, easy to build in survival and avoided wasting too many blocks on stairs and fences.

the above image is a list of prime numbers using the number system.

1 2 3 5 7 11 13 17 19 23 27 29 31 etc.

the system is based in prime factorization and is read from bottom to top.

fence = add 1

slab = multiply by 2

block = multiply by three 3

full block of space = exponent (17 is an example of 2^(2*2) + 1)

I don’t like it because it’s difficult to both build and read large numbers without having to do a lot of mental math.

this could be possible to build in survival by using other blocks to scaffold but I think it could be a bit better if the system didn’t require scaffolding.

1 wun

2 to

3 twun

4 four

5 fouwun

6 fouto

7 foutwun

8 eigh

9 eiwun

10 eito

11 eitwun

12 eifour

13 eifouwun

14 eifouto

15 eifoutwun

16 sik

17 sikwun

18 sikto

19 siktwun

20 sikfour

21 sikfouwun

22 sikfouto

23 sikfoutwun

24 sikeigh

25 sikeiwun

26 sikeito

27 sikeitwun

28 sikeifour

29 sikeifouwun

30 sikeifouto

31 sikeifoutwun

32 thur

33 thuwun

34 thuto

35 thutwun

36 thufour

37 thufouwun

38 thufouto

39 thufoutwun

40 thureigh

41 thureiwun

42 thureito

43 thureitwun

44 thureifour

45 thureifouwun

46 thureifouto

47 thureifoutwun

48 thursik

49 thursikwun

50 thursikto

51 thursiktwun

52 thursikfour

53 thursikfouwun

54 thursikfouto

55 thursikfoutwun

56 thursikeigh

57 thursikeiwun

58 thursikeito

59 thursikeitwun

60 thursikeifour

61 thursikeifouwun

62 thursikeifouto

63 thursikeifoutwun

The Oksapmin people of New Guinea have a base-27 counting system. The words for numbers are the words for the 27 body parts they use for counting, starting at the thumb of one hand, going up to the nose, then down the other side of the body to the pinky of the other hand, as shown in the drawing. 'One' is tip^na (thumb), 6 is dopa (wrist), 12 is nata (ear), 16 is tan-nata (ear on the other side), all the way to 27, or tan-h^th^ta (pinky on the other side).

Keep in mind that you don’t really need to change up numbering systems unless there is a very specific reason. I’ve talked about this once before regarding species with various numbers of fingers other than ten. 

In general, it’s assumed in fantasy and scifi that you, the writer, are doing the needed translating for any words that have a sufficient English (or whatever language you’re writing in) equivalent. You should only really be leaving in conlang words if they serve a distinct purpose or don’t have an adequate translation.

That being said, if you truly need to create a new numbering system as it serves your story in an important way, then I suggest doing a bit of research into numbering systems and how they work. You can also look into the various number systems of our world to get an idea how other functioning number systems work. 

Logically, yes. They would have a different counting system. I have done a similar thing in a story of mine. And honestly, it just doesn’t come up all that often. I’ve created an entire number system (with 4/8 as a base, just as you have) and it ended up being pretty irrelevant because in the narrative, the specific numbers and the translation thereof did not matter. The other characters understood the number. If a character and a real-world mathematician were trying to communicate and work out an equation together, then things might get weird. But this falls under the umbrella of things that are true, are fine to think about as a writer, but don’t necessarily have a place in the novel.

Now, you can somehow establish the fact that they think of numbers differently because of their four-fingered hands, but don’t go on about it too much if it doesn’t move the story forward.