The tonal system is a base 16 system of notation (predating the widespread use of hexadecimal in computing), arithmetic, and metrology proposed in 1859 by John W. Nystrom. [1] In addition to new weights and measures, his proposal included a new calendar with sixteen months, a new system of coinage, and a clock with sixteen major divisions of the day (called tims). Nystrom advocated his system thus:
I am not afraid, or do not hesitate, to advocate a binary system of arithmetic and metrology. I know I have nature on my side; if I do not succeed to impress upon you its utility and great importance to mankind, it will reflect that much less credit upon our generation, upon scientific men and philosophers. [2]
He proposed names for the digits, calling zero "noll" and counting (from one to sixteen):
"An, de, ti, go, su, by, ra, me, ni, ko, hu, vy, la, po, fy, ton." (Therefore, tonal system.)
Because hexadecimal requires sixteen digits, Nystrom supplemented the existing decimal digits 0 through 9 with his own invented characters (shown on his clockface above) and changed the value of 9 to ten. (Unicode approximation: ⬯𐑑߶ƷႷ5678𝓈9꒹🝣𐐁ꯖⳠ) Later, the hexadecimal notation overcame this same obstacle by using the digits 0 through 9 followed by the letters A through F.
The numbers 1116 and 1216 would be said "tonan", "tonde", etc. The table below shows Nystrom's names for successive powers of 1016.
Base 16 Number | Tonal Name | Base 10 Equivalent |
---|---|---|
10 | ton | 16 |
100 | san | 256 |
1000 | mill | 4,096 |
1,0000 | bong | 65,536 |
10,0000 | tonbong | 1,048,576 |
100,0000 | sanbong | 16,777,216 |
1000,0000 | millbong | 268,435,456 |
1,0000,0000 | tam | 4,294,967,296 |
1,0000,0000,0000 | song | 16^12 |
1,0000,0000,0000,0000 | tran | 16^16 |
1,0000,0000,0000,0000,0000 | bongtran | 16^20 |
Thus, the hexadecimal number 1510,0000 would be "mill-susanton-bong". This first hexadecimal system, proposed in the 19th century, has thus far not achieved widespread usage.
Although Nystrom did not propose a language for tonal fractions, his nomenclature for units of measure does provide one: the name of a power of sixteen before the base unit's name multiplies it by that number, but a power of sixteen after the base unit's name divides it by that number. Thus, de timtons means 1⁄8tim.
For latitudes he put 0 at the North Pole, 4 at the equator and 8 at the South Pole. The units were called tims. They are the same as the colatitudes measured in turns times 16.
Tonal (in tims) | ISO 6709 | Colatitude (in degrees) | Colatitude (in turns) |
---|---|---|---|
0 | 090 | 0° | 0 |
1 | 67.5 | ||
2 | 045 | 45° | 0.125 |
3 | 022.5 | ||
4 | 000 | 90° | 0.25 |
5 | −22.5 | ||
6 | −045 | 135° | 0.375 |
7 | −67.5 | ||
8 | −090 | 180° | 0.5 |
In his book he made a reference to music notation, where binary division is already in use for time. He also discussed the problem of pitch inflation, which he proposed to solve by setting the A below middle C to a frequency of san per timmill (194 Hz).
The duodecimal system, also known as base twelve or dozenal, is a positional numeral system using twelve as its base. In duodecimal, the number twelve is denoted "10", meaning 1 twelve and 0 units; in the decimal system, this number is instead written as "12" meaning 1 ten and 2 units, and the string "10" means ten. In duodecimal, "100" means twelve squared, "1000" means twelve cubed, and "0.1" means a twelfth.
Hexadecimal is a positional numeral system that represents numbers using a radix (base) of sixteen. Unlike the decimal system representing numbers using ten symbols, hexadecimal uses sixteen distinct symbols, most often the symbols "0"–"9" to represent values 0 to 9 and "A"–"F" to represent values from ten to fifteen.
A numeral system is a writing system for expressing numbers; that is, a mathematical notation for representing numbers of a given set, using digits or other symbols in a consistent manner.
Octal is a numeral system with eight as the base.
A computer number format is the internal representation of numeric values in digital device hardware and software, such as in programmable computers and calculators. Numerical values are stored as groupings of bits, such as bytes and words. The encoding between numerical values and bit patterns is chosen for convenience of the operation of the computer; the encoding used by the computer's instruction set generally requires conversion for external use, such as for printing and display. Different types of processors may have different internal representations of numerical values and different conventions are used for integer and real numbers. Most calculations are carried out with number formats that fit into a processor register, but some software systems allow representation of arbitrarily large numbers using multiple words of memory.
A binary number is a number expressed in the base-2 numeral system or binary numeral system, a method for representing numbers that uses only two symbols for the natural numbers: typically "0" (zero) and "1" (one). A binary number may also refer to a rational number that has a finite representation in the binary numeral system, that is, the quotient of an integer by a power of two.
A numerical digit or numeral is a single symbol used alone, or in combinations, to represent numbers in positional notation, such as the common base 10. The name "digit" originates from the Latin digiti meaning fingers.
Tonal may refer to:
Quaternary is a numeral system with four as its base. It uses the digits 0, 1, 2, and 3 to represent any real number. Conversion from binary is straightforward.
Positional notation, also known as place-value notation, positional numeral system, or simply place value, usually denotes the extension to any base of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system. More generally, a positional system is a numeral system in which the contribution of a digit to the value of a number is the value of the digit multiplied by a factor determined by the position of the digit. In early numeral systems, such as Roman numerals, a digit has only one value: I means one, X means ten and C a hundred. In modern positional systems, such as the decimal system, the position of the digit means that its value must be multiplied by some value: in 555, the three identical symbols represent five hundreds, five tens, and five units, respectively, due to their different positions in the digit string.
Hexadecimal floating point is a format for encoding floating-point numbers first introduced on the IBM System/360 computers, and supported on subsequent machines based on that architecture, as well as machines which were intended to be application-compatible with System/360.
Base32 is an encoding method based on the base-32 numeral system. It uses an alphabet of 32 digits, each of which represents a different combination of 5 bits (25). Since base32 is not very widely adopted, the question of notation—which characters to use to represent the 32 digits—is not as settled as in the case of more well-known numeral systems (such as hexadecimal), though RFCs and unofficial and de-facto standards exist. One way to represent Base32 numbers in human-readable form is using digits 0–9 followed by the twenty-two upper-case letters A–V. However, many other variations are used in different contexts. Historically, Baudot code could be considered a modified (stateful) base32 code.
In a positional numeral system, the radix or base is the number of unique digits, including the digit zero, used to represent numbers. For example, for the decimal system the radix is ten, because it uses the ten digits from 0 through 9.
Hexadecimal time is the representation of the time of day as a hexadecimal number in the interval [0, 1).
John Williams Nystrom was a Swedish American civil engineer, inventor, and author. He served as an assistant Secretary and Chief Engineer of the United States Navy during the American Civil War.
The earliest recorded systems of weights and measures originate in the 3rd or 4th millennium BC. Even the very earliest civilizations needed measurement for purposes of agriculture, construction and trade. Early standard units might only have applied to a single community or small region, with every area developing its own standards for lengths, areas, volumes and masses. Often such systems were closely tied to one field of use, so that volume measures used, for example, for dry grains were unrelated to those for liquids, with neither bearing any particular relationship to units of length used for measuring cloth or land. With development of manufacturing technologies, and the growing importance of trade between communities and ultimately across the Earth, standardized weights and measures became critical. Starting in the 18th century, modernized, simplified and uniform systems of weights and measures were developed, with the fundamental units defined by ever more precise methods in the science of metrology. The discovery and application of electricity was one factor motivating the development of standardized internationally applicable units.
Non-standard positional numeral systems here designates numeral systems that may loosely be described as positional systems, but that do not entirely comply with the following description of standard positional systems:
In computing, bit numbering is the convention used to identify the bit positions in a binary number.
The Bibi-binary system for numeric notation is a hexadecimal numeral system first described in 1968 by singer/mathematician Robert "Boby" Lapointe (1922–1972). At the time, it attracted the attention of André Lichnerowicz, then engaged in studies at the University of Lyon.