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neat
^^^^
That is very true.
Do you think if you were raised thinking in base 60, your brain would adapt and think that... just as an example, 17x60 was easier mental math than 17x10?
Most of us could do 17x60 in our heads with varying degrees of speed, but I'm sure that if you put people on the spot you'd get A LOT more wrong answers than if you asked 17x10. Wonder if the opposite would be true for a Babylonian :-k Maybe not... based 10 is still stupid easy so I'm sure if you primarily work in base 60 then base 10 is still simple.
17 x 60 in base 60 looks nothing like it does in base 10. Base 60 looks more like an extended hexadecimal, except you don't get to 10 until you reach 60. So you've got 0-9, A-Z, and a-x representing decimal 0 - 59 with x = 59, until you reach 10 = 60. 17 x 60 = 1020d, but 1020 in base 60 is H0.
I took a course on the History of Mathematics where we did a whole mess of math like ancient civilizations did. Base 60 is absolutely way harder than base 10. Doing math in Roman numerals sucks ass hard. And my final observation for you and for anyone else who is curious: Thank Christ for graphing, which is a fairly recent development in math, because figuring stuff out without it is absolutely headache inducing.
I suppose if we had to do base 60 all the time, we'd get used to it, and eventually would start thinking in it. Your brain adapts if you're doing it all the time and not relying back on the crutch of what you already know. I mean I've learned to do signed and unsigned binary, octal, and hexadecimal on my own for computer programming purposes, but I still have to pause and think my way through it. Since I'm not native to it, and I'm not doing it all the time, I'm always relating back to base 10. I guess it's like learning a foreign language when you're older, you keep relating back to what you know in English because it's what you think in by default. I suppose we could start thinking in the foreign language with enough exposure to it. Kids have it easier because it's not so ingrained in their heads like it is ours, but now we're getting into developmental psychology, and that's more Lost and RBP's playground.
I believe you would have to be exposed as a child to fully assimilate. As an adult your default will be always to return to your initial language and, as you say translate in your head.