Teacher: “Now we’re going to learn about base 10 arithmetic”.
Wise guy: “Is that where 3 + 4 = 12, or is it where 3 x 4 = 12 ?”.
I did a search on the net and found the term “base 10” all over the place. What does it mean?
An apparently annoying question:
“Does the 1 in 10 stand for the number 10’s in 10?”.
The interpretation of 10 in the system described as “Base 10” depends on the base of the system, so what is it? How do I find out?
We have here a logical problem. The term “Base 10” as a definition is self referential. It is more subtle than this definition of a straight line:
“A straight line is a line which is straight”.
The problem arises from the almost universal confusion between the two things:
1: The name of a number, in this case “ten” is supposedly implied
2: The symbols representing a number, in this case 10 in the base ten system”
So the answers to the questions “What is it? How do I find out?” above are “Unknown” and “You can’t”
Writing “Base 10” when you mean “Base ten” is probably the first step in making math meaningless.