I recently turned 30 and wrote a silly post about converting 30 into different bases.
The idea came when I was trying to understand why we consider turning 30 to be significant. We celebrate other ages because they mark some cultural or legal transition. Bar and bat mitzvahs, quinceañeras, and sweet sixteens are considered to be coming-of-age ceremonies. In America, 18 and 21 are legally significant because they mark legal adulthood1 and legal alcohol consumption, respectively.
After that though, the only milestone birthdays we celebrate are the decades. We do the same thing with years. The 2020 new year was considered more significant than the 2019 new year because we were entering a new decade.2
I understand that we view the decades of our lives as discrete entities. We often speak of “our 20s” as a period that ends the moment we become 30. It’s a useful tool for segmenting time and giving us points for reflecting on our lives. But why 10? Why not 5? Why not 2? Why not every year?
It feels obvious and intuitive. We use a base 10 numeral system. When we reach a multiple of 10, we start back from 0 in the ones place. The same thing happens when we reach a multiple of 100 or 1000. Every multiple of 10, we begin anew.
I think we take this for granted though. Numbers do not have to be represented in base 10. We can represent them however we want. If base 12 were the standard, we would consider 24, 36, 48, etc as our milestone years.
The systems we use to represent numbers inform our collective definitions of significance and time. But the systems are not fixed or fundamental and neither are the things we believe to be important.
This is what inspired my previous post. 30 is only more significant than 29 and 31 if we restrict ourselves to our current systems. I think it’s important for us to poke and prod at the underlying systems that inform our beliefs.
Finally, I’ll leave you with something fun I found when writing that little script.
Since I chose to use an alphanumeric system for representing digits, (N)B
is represented by a letter of the alphabet when 10 < N < B.
When B > 30, 30 is U.
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In America, 18 year olds can vote, drive cars, buy guns, and die for their country. They’re not ready to do something as important or dangerous as have a glass of wine though. ↩︎
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Perhaps not the best example since this particular decade was kicked off by a (hopefully) once in a lifetime, normalcy shattering global event. But the point still stands. ↩︎