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Possible Duplicate:
why have we chosen our number system to be decimal (base 10)

0,1,2,3,.......9! What are the reasons fow which this system is the most popular? Why not any other base? It though seems to us that working with bases 4,5,2 or 12 might be difficult, but isn't that because we know there are simple numbers like 10,20..............? It also seems that the question would remain the same if it was 3 instead of 10, but that would again demand an answer. What are the reasons that would make one particular base lead the others?

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    Closely related: http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/166869/2012-08-13

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Rather than mathematical advantage i think it is a matter of history, humans started using this in many parts of the world, specially the Arabs

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    @SN77: Usually, posting two separate answers is done only if the two answers are very different in character. Is there a reason why you've separated these two answers? Perhaps you would consider combining them?2012-08-13
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I think it is a matter of convention, but if you would like to use any other base it is fine,but i think bases like 2,3 have more mathematical advantage than 10,if you are willing to write more numbers.

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The number words of various cultures are practically universally given in base 5, base 10, or base 20, with 10 being the overwhelmingly most popular, which shows clearly that people counted on their fingers, and sometimes also toes.

More interestingly, it also shows that counting is more primitive and fundamental than dividing. Base 10 is not the most practical for division, so when accurate division became more important, other bases were introduced, like 6, 12, and 60, for different uses. This did not change the names of the numberes, though, only how one worked with them.