>>13938915Let us assume we have countable things.
Let us also assume we can store information somewhere.
Then the most simple way to store the number would be to make a certain symbol for every instance of the object.
If I want to give someone the information "5 apples" I could make a symbol for "apple" (say "@") and make a "1" for every apple:
11111@
The symbol "@" is the dimensions and the five lines are the amount. This is called "base 1" number, since my number system only knows one symbol.
Now imagine making 27.273.284 lines - terribly inconvenient, isn't it? So people found out you could use more symbols, for example base 2..
001, 010, 011, 100, 101, …
.. or base 8 ..
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, …
.. or base 16 ..
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F, 10, 11, …
Or base 10 (what we use).
The reason for base 10 is probably just a coincidence, because of humans having 10 fingers.
Hope this helps you a little bit?
