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The Birkana hexadecimal number symbols

yawar.blogspot.com

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Re: The Birkana hexadecimal number symbols

#21

Post by andars »

hnsummarizer wrote: post #9

Tldr: "While the hexadecimal notation of using the first six letters of the alphabet is practical in a rough-and-ready sort of way, no one ever accused it of being elegant.,But to this day, the only result I've managed to find in my searches has been a mailing list post in the discussions of The International Slide Rule Group--probably not a very prominent corner of the online world.,Birkana is a Runic symbol set for…

Is this a bot? This summary is nearly the length of the article, just lacking the actual images of Birkana symbols.

Re: The Birkana hexadecimal number symbols

#22

Post by maaaats »

todd-davies wrote: post #17

> AMONG number systems, the hexadecimal system of counting (or 'radix') has a special place in the hearts of programmers, being closely related to binary, the fundamental number system used by all modern computers. Could somebody explain how hexadecimal is more closely related to binary than any other base is? My only conclusion is that one hexadecimal digit is equivalent four binary digits.

Bases in 2^n can be easily converted between, as you can consider each group/symbol independently when converting.

Re: The Birkana hexadecimal number symbols

#24

Post by lucb1e »

What I find the neatest is that it's not just showing hexadecimals, but the binary representation at the same time. In the Birkana symbol for 9 it's very easy to recognize the binary 1001: it has the top and bottom 'bits' set.

It also made me aware that I never thought about the symbols we use for numbers. Our digits 0 through 9 suddenly seem very arbitrary, looking at Birkana. Though ten digits are more difficult than sixteen to represent this way, they could certainly have had logic in them.

Re: The Birkana hexadecimal number symbols

#25

Post by david-given »

Fun fact: you can count to hexadecimal on the fingers of one hand.

The way it works is that each of your four fingers has four well-defined places on them: the three joints, plus the tip. You use your thumb to point at one of these. The first finger represents 1-4, the second 5-8, the third 9-12, the fourth 13-16. You count up and down by moving your thumb.

Also, because you use the thumb of the same hand for pointing, you can count two different hexadecimal numbers if you use both hands --- which means you can count to 256.

(I don't know anybody limber enough to do this with their toes.)

As a special bonus: if you point to the fleshy pads of the fingers instead of the joints, you can use the same system for base 12.

Re: The Birkana hexadecimal number symbols

#26

Post by grzm »

andars wrote: post #21
hnsummarizer wrote: post #9

Tldr: "While the hexadecimal notation of using the first six letters of the alphabet is practical in a rough-and-ready sort of way, no one ever accused it of being elegant.,But to this day, the only result I've managed to find in my searches has been a mailing list post in the discussions of The International Slide Rule Group--probably not a very prominent corner of the online world.,Birkana is a Runic symbol set for…

Is this a bot? This summary is nearly the length of the article, just lacking the actual images of Birkana symbols.

I believe so, looking at the other comments it's posted in the hour it's been on the site:

https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=hnsummarizer

Re: The Birkana hexadecimal number symbols

#27

Post by pygy_ »

The bibi-binary notation is somewhat similar (16 === 2^2^2). It was patented in 1968 by Bobby Lapointe, a French variety singer, but didn't get much traction AFAICT. Bibi-binary also has a custom pronunciation for hex digits.

The article is in French[0], but the main illustration that describes the system is self-explanatory[1].

0. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syst%C3%A8me_Bibi-binaire

1. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Table_de...

Re: The Birkana hexadecimal number symbols

#28

Post by daeken »

david-given wrote: post #25

Fun fact: you can count to hexadecimal on the fingers of one hand. The way it works is that each of your four fingers has four well-defined places on them: the three joints, plus the tip. You use your thumb to point at one of these. The first finger represents 1-4, the second 5-8, the third 9-12, the fourth 13-16. You count up and down by moving your thumb. Also, because you use the thumb of the same hand for pointin…

Counting in binary gets you even further. If each finger is one bit, you can easily count to 2^10-1 == 1023. I frequently use this to keep track of running totals over 10.

Re: The Birkana hexadecimal number symbols

#29

Post by kmill »

daeken wrote: post #28
david-given wrote: post #25

Fun fact: you can count to hexadecimal on the fingers of one hand. The way it works is that each of your four fingers has four well-defined places on them: the three joints, plus the tip. You use your thumb to point at one of these. The first finger represents 1-4, the second 5-8, the third 9-12, the fourth 13-16. You count up and down by moving your thumb. Also, because you use the thumb of the same hand for pointin…

Counting in binary gets you even further. If each finger is one bit, you can easily count to 2^10-1 == 1023. I frequently use this to keep track of running totals over 10.

In my high school orchestra, I'd count the rest measures on my cello's fingerboard using binary. Usually I'd only need four fingers, but occasionally I'd need my thumb as well if the composer mistook the cello for a bass.

Re: The Birkana hexadecimal number symbols

#30

Post by szc »

OMGWTF wrote: post #11
szc wrote: post #10

I think there is a problem with this notation - it is not self aligning. Meaning that if you hand wrote these you could then easily mis-read the values. It would probably be okay in printed form or if you were using lined paper, using the ruled line as a centre point.

Can you provide an example that could be misread? I think its quite easy to judge whether a downwards accent starts at the top of the line or at the middle, similarly for the upwards accent if it starts at the middle or at the bottom.

I may have made a mistake in assuming that the vertical line, because it was drawn in a different weight, was not part of the symbol. Without the line 1 & 4, 2 & 8 and 3 & 12 would rely on the vertical relationship with other symbols.
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