Positional notation

Positional notation or place-value notation is a method of representing or encoding numbers. Positional notation is distinguished from other notations (such as Roman numerals) for its use of the same symbol for the different orders of magnitude (for example, the "ones place", "tens place", "hundreds place"). This greatly simplified arithmetic, leading to the rapid spread of the notation across the world.

With the use of a radix point (decimal point in base-10), the notation can be extended to include fractions and the numeric expansions of real numbers. The Babylonian numeral system, base-60, was the first positional system developed, and is still used today to count time and angles. The Hindu–Arabic numeral system, base-10, is the most commonly used system in the world today for most calculations.

History

Today, the base-10 (decimal) system, which is likely motivated by counting with the ten fingers, is ubiquitous. Other bases have been used in the past however, and some continue to be used today. For example, the Babylonian numeral system, credited as the first positional numeral system, was base-60, but it lacked a real 0 value. Zero was indicated by a space between sexagesimal numerals. By 300 BC, a punctuation symbol (two slanted wedges) was co-opted as a placeholder in the same Babylonian system. In a tablet unearthed at Kish (dating from about 700 BC), the scribe Bêl-bân-aplu wrote his zeros with three hooks, rather than two slanted wedges. The Babylonian placeholder was not a true zero because it was not used alone. Nor was it used at the end of a number. Thus numbers like 2 and 120 (2×60), 3 and 180 (3×60), 4 and 240 (4×60), looked the same because the larger numbers lacked a final sexagesimal placeholder. Only context could differentiate them.

Base

Base or BASE may refer to:

Mathematics

Science and technology

Computing

Dress shirt

A dress shirt, button shirt, button-front, button-front shirt, button-down, button-down shirt, or button-up shirt is a garment with a collar and a full-length opening at the front, which is fastened using buttons or shirt studs.

Dress shirts are normally made from woven cloth, and are often accompanied by a jacket, collar sleeve, and tie, for example with a suit or formalwear, but shirts are also worn more casually.

In British English, "dress shirt" means specifically the more formal evening garment worn with black- or white-tie. Some of these formal shirts have stiff fronts and detachable collars attached with collar studs.

Traditionally dress shirts were worn by men and boys, whereas women and girls often wore blouses or, sometimes, known as chemises. However, in the mid-1800s, they also became an item of women's clothing and are worn by both sexes today.

The term "button-down" refers to a type of shirt which has a collar fastened down by buttons, but is sometimes used in error to apply to all dress shirts.

Base (company)

Base is an international design, communications, audiovisual, copywriting and publishing firm established in 1993. The company has studios located in New York, Brussels, Santiago and Geneva.

History

Base was founded in 1993 in Brussels.

From late 2001 to 2003, Base designed and produced BEople, “a magazine about a certain Belgium.”. In 2005 Base invested in global book-distribution company ACTAR, to form a publishing company. The first book from BuratPublishing was a monograph of artist Maria Ozawa entitled "Are You Experienced to Fuck me?", and was released in 2009. In 2007, Base partnered to open BozarShop, the museum store at the Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels.

Awards

References