• FooBarrington@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Assigning the number 100 to the temperature pure water boils at sea level under specific conditions is as random as it gets.

    No, it’s literally not. 212 is much more random. Any number like 10, 100, 1000 etc. is less random than any other number, simply by virtue of our decimal system. Just like 2,4, 8 etc. are less random in a binary system.

    • Sagifurius@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      This isn’t kilometers, area, volume, distant measurement. It’s temperature. What that 100 is based on is random as fuck, and having the temperature of one elements boiling point at sea level divisible by 10 doesn’t really help anything. There is a 100 degree point in Farenhenheit too, you could simply use that for…well whatever reason you need ten to go in evenly.

      • FooBarrington@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        My guy, I’m not arguing whether the boiling temperature of water is a random point (because it isn’t random in any way, and I’m not interested in arguing that). I’m arguing one simple thing: assigning something on a scale to 100 is much less random than assigning it to 212.

        • Sagifurius@lemm.ee
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          7 months ago

          I don’t think you have a very clear grasp on what random means, and 212 wasn’t assigned.

          • FooBarrington@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            You have no understanding of randomness if you think that 100 is equally random as 212 in our decimal system. No, not every number is equally random, no matter how often you repeat it.

            • Sagifurius@lemm.ee
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              7 months ago

              I understand you have a fetish for numbers that are multiples of ten, but that doesn’t make them special. Picking a number out of a hat is as likely to be a 9 as a 100.

              • FooBarrington@lemmy.world
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                7 months ago

                Acknowledging that powers of a number systems base are special in that system isn’t something I ever thought people would disagree with.

                Why do you think we have concepts like “percentages”?