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        <title><![CDATA[TB-Articles - TechBites]]></title>
        <description><![CDATA[TechBites - The Science and Technology Collaborative Community]]></description>
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                <guid isPermaLink="false">1054-316</guid>
	            <title><![CDATA[History of Computers (350 Million Years BC) The First Tetrapods Leave the Oceans: There was this fascination for 6s and 12s by the British!]]></title>
	            <link>/200911151054/myblog/articles/z0031-history-of-computers-350-million-years-bc-the-first-tetrapods-leave-the-oceans.html</link>
	            <description><![CDATA[
	            	            Hi Max.. Good blog!

From my childhood, I remember that we here in India had borrowed the fascination for 6 and its multiples. Our Rupee consisted of 96 annas, with a 'quarter' at 24 annas and a 'penny' equivalent coin at 6 annas. This was obviously influenced perhaps by somewhat similar fascination that the British have (or had) for 6, 12 and its multiples in all forms of measurement. The universal acceptance of the SI system has pretty much put the 12 to rest, I believe.

Like you have said about 10 'digits' of our two hands being the reason for the decimal digit system, there seems to be one reason why 12 could be loved -

When counting 'mantras' for chanting, I have noticed the learned masters move the tip of thumb from one bone-segment of each finger to the next, and then progress to the next finger and so forth. 4 fingers with 3 bone segments make for a count of 12. The left hand is used then to fold finger by finger in one direction, and unfold in the reverse direction to create a cascade count of multiples of 12.

Then there are these counting bead strings used by Buddhists, Jains and Hindus alike. I never bothered to check how many beads each such string carries. I kind of tend to think it may be 108, a multiple of 12 with 9.

Another time, we need to talk about 9 too.	            ]]></description>
                <category><![CDATA[TB-Articles]]></category>
                <pubDate>Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:32:51 -0600</pubDate>
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