Bifalgorithm post · Brisk · Chapter 1

Why are digit changes at base-10 boundaries only an illusion of significance?

Why are digit changes at base-10 boundaries only an illusion of significance? (Brisk · Chapter 1) — "But if you had been writing these numbers out as base-10 r…

Ideas in this flowchart

  • Les changements de notation créent l’illusion que certains nombres marquent une transformation fondamentale.
  • En base 10, on compte de 8 à 9, puis de 9 à 10.
  • Le passage de 9 à 10 fait passer l’« odomètre » d’un chiffre à deux chiffres, car un seul chiffre ne suffit plus.
  • Cette transition peut donner l’illusion qu’un changement fondamental s’est produit.
  • Le nombre lui-même ne change pas de nature lorsque seule sa représentation écrite change.
  • Les êtres humains ont tendance à considérer les changements d’odomètre comme importants.
  • Des exemples de jalons numériques souvent perçus comme particulièrement significatifs.
  • Le franchissement de 100 degrés semble soudain plus important que le passage de 98 à 99.
  • Le Dow Jones atteignant 10 000 a été perçu comme un événement véritablement important.
  • Les 4 000 coups sûrs de Pete Rose et l’arrivée de l’an 2000 ont également été traités comme des jalons majeurs.
  • Le caractère important de ces jalons est arbitraire, car il dépend de la base numérique choisie.
  • Nous aurions pu choisir n’importe quelle base de numération.
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Why are digit changes at base-10 boundaries only an illusion of significance?

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Brisk

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"But if you had been writing these numbers out as base-10 representations, like you’re used to doing, you might have thought differently. You’d have gone from: (A) 8 to (B) 9 to (C) 10 When going from B to C, your “odometer” wrapped around. You had to go from a one-digit number to a two-digit number, simply because you ran out of room in one digit. This can lead to the illusion that something fundamentally different happens when you go from B to C. This is completely an illusion. Nothing different happens to the number just because the way we write it down changes. Human beings have a curious habit of thinking that odometer changes are significant. When the temperature breaks 100, it suddenly feels “more hotter” than it did when it merely rose from 98 to 99. When the Dow Jones Industrial Average first reached 10,000, and when Pete Rose eclipsed 4,000 career hits, and when the year 2000 dawned, we tended to think that something truly important had taken place. But as we’ll see, the point at which these milestones occur is utterly and even laughably aribitrary: it simply has to do with what number we’ve chosen as our base. And we quite honestly could have chosen any number at all."

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