Number systems Memes

The numerical system bell curve perfectly captures the three stages of programmer enlightenment: On the left, we have the blissfully ignorant novice who thinks "there is only base 10" because that's all they've ever known. Sweet summer child. In the middle, the "well actually" phase where developers discover binary, octal, and hexadecimal, and feel compelled to lecture everyone about how "there are infinitely many bases" while listing them off like rare Pokémon cards. And finally, on the right, the enlightened programmer who comes full circle: "there is only base 10" – but with the cosmic understanding that every base system calls itself "base 10" in its own representation. Binary is "base 10" in binary (1010), hexadecimal is "base 10" in hex (0x10). It's the programming equivalent of "I studied philosophy to impress people at parties, only to realize nobody invites philosophers to parties."

The numerical system paradox strikes again! The question asks what base has 10 digits in base 10, and the answer distribution is pure mathematical chaos. The trick is that any number system represents its own base as "10" - binary (base 2) writes 2 as "10", octal (base 8) writes 8 as "10", etc. So technically, every base is "base 10" when written in its own number system! The frustrated middle character screaming "no!!! it's two!!!" gets it but can't handle the semantic trickery, while the chill characters on both ends are just vibing with "it's ten" - both correct in their own way. It's the perfect trap for the pedantic programmer who lives in the binary world but has to interface with humans.