Pentadecimal
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| Numeral systems by culture | |
|---|---|
| Hindu-Arabic numerals | |
| Indian Eastern Arabic Khmer |
Indian family Brahmi Thai |
| East Asian numerals | |
| Chinese Suzhou Counting rods |
Japanese Korean |
| Alphabetic numerals | |
| Abjad Armenian Cyrillic Ge'ez |
Hebrew Greek (Ionian) Āryabhaṭa |
| Other systems | |
| Attic Babylonian Egyptian Etruscan |
Mayan Roman Urnfield |
| List of numeral system topics | |
| Positional systems by base | |
| Decimal (10) | |
| 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 | |
| 1, 3, 9, 12, 20, 24, 30, 36, 60, more… | |
The pentadecimal (base-15) positional notation system is based on the number fifteen. Comparatively, the decimal system is based on the number ten, the hexadecimal system is based on the number sixteen, and so on. Another name used for the base-15 system is quindecimal (although this term can be confused with quinary which is a base-5 notation system).
Pentadecimal requires fifteen symbols. Since there are only ten common decimal digits, the notation can be extended by using letters A, B, C, D and E to represent values 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14, respectively. For example, decimal values 0 to 20 in pentadecimal would be: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. The pentadecimal number 373 would be 783 in decimal.
This numeric base is infrequently used. It finds applications in mathematics as well as fields such as telephony routing over IP (http://www.zvon.org/tmRFC/RFC3219/Output/chapter5.html) and other specialized uses.
[edit] Natural languages
The Huli language of Papua New Guinea is reported to have base-15 numerals[1]. Ngui means 15, ngui ki means 15×2 = 30, and ngui ngui means 15×15 = 225.
[edit] References
- ^ Cheetham, Brian (1978), “Counting and Number in Huli”, Papua New Guinea Journal of Education 14: 16-35, <http://www.uog.ac.pg/PUB08-Oct-03/cheetham.htm>
