Base 12 Count

I was a 3d graphics programmer for many years. One of the largest problems to over-come in 3d graphics are rounding errors. There are many creative solutions to this problems. One solution is similar to the problem that Newton used in his algorithm for Gravitational Attraction; he squares everything and then takes the square root of the result; that is too slow for graphics programming. A quicker solution can be found in a register shift left, do your math and then shift the result right thus increasing the accuracy of your result.

That leads perfectly to our use of base 10 math. Seems that long ago a base 12 was used. We still have societies in the Hindu Valley as well as South Africa and the Himalayas that employ a base 12 count.

This may be the origin of a dozen. In these places a man could count to 12 using one hand, while the other hand moved the eggs. This is done by using the thumb to count all the phalanges on one hand and there are 12 phalanges .

Now lets examine why 12 is better for graphics. Beyond a 360 degree universe being divisible by 12. With a 10 base count, 10 is divisible by 1, 2 and 5 or a 30% chance at an even multiple. But with a 12 base count, 12 is divisible by 1,2,3,4,6; or a 41% chance.