Ohdrat
Well-Known Member
Why are cables 10ths of nm and not 12ths? Surely as nms are base 12 so should cables should be base 12 too???
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Cables and Bases
- Thread starter Ohdrat
- Start date
ParaHandy
Well-Known Member
... a nautical mile isn't to the base 12 ..
a base refers to the numeric power which a base number is raised to. eg the number 61 to the base 8 would be (in base 10 or decimal) 6 times 8 to the power 1 (=48) plus 1 times 8 to the power zero (=1). Thus 48+1=49. Hexadecimal is to the base 16 and it gets round the fact that decimal users would have difficulty with the digits by introducing alphanumeric characters eg 0-9 and A-F ..
sorry for pedantry ... the nautical mile was standardised around the time the UK decimalised ....
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a base refers to the numeric power which a base number is raised to. eg the number 61 to the base 8 would be (in base 10 or decimal) 6 times 8 to the power 1 (=48) plus 1 times 8 to the power zero (=1). Thus 48+1=49. Hexadecimal is to the base 16 and it gets round the fact that decimal users would have difficulty with the digits by introducing alphanumeric characters eg 0-9 and A-F ..
sorry for pedantry ... the nautical mile was standardised around the time the UK decimalised ....
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Ohdrat
Well-Known Member
ahhhh mistry solved.. guess my o level maths needs brushing up too! Least I'm ok with vectors!
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