Why Our Counting System is Biased

How do you count like a computer? Neil deGrasse Tyson examines our base ten number system and teaches Chuck different ways to count… or at least tries to. Is our counting system biased?

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Science meets pop culture on StarTalk! Astrophysicist & Hayden Planetarium director Neil deGrasse Tyson, his comic co-hosts, guest celebrities & scientists discuss astronomy, physics, and everything else about life in the universe. Keep Looking Up!

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Timestamps:
00:00 - Counting to Ten
00:55 - Counting in Base 5 & Base 16
7:08 - Counting in Binary
12:40 - Are we Base 10 Biased?
14:14 - Closing

[StarTalk]

01010100 01101000 01100001 01101110 01101011 01111001 01101111 01110101 01100110 01101111 01110010 01110111 01100001 01110100 01100011 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100111 01010011 01110100 01100001 01110010 01010100 01100001 01101100 01101011 00100001

[mihagomiunik]

Alternate title: Niel psychologically tortures Chuck for 15 minutes straight.

[emilianogonzalez]

Kept yelling 10 at my screen for 15 minutes straight.

[Laochraiceann]

It's encouraging to see someone publish a video where they are struggling with grasping a concept, as we all do from time to time. More of this sort of thing.

[harjeet-music]

As someone with a background in programming it was hilarious to watch Chuck not get it for 15 minutes straight. It does prove a point though; we are so used to the way we perceive the universe that sometimes obvious things completely elude us.

[Synfendia]

This is exactly why Chuck deserves to be at every single one of these podcasts. He makes it okay for everyone out there who is trying to follow along, yet is not a complete idiot. Long live the Tyson-Nice duo!

[frankowot]

There are 10 kinds of people in this world - those who understand Base 2 and those who don't

[AscendantPerfection]

Whoever edited this video deserves a raise 💀💀💀

[mwilasolochi]

That, 6:21 "Thank you" got me good😂😂😂😂😂

[bbqwhaaat]

My girlfriend: "Why were you yelling 'one zero' over and over earlier?"

[bibekbhandari]

This totally takes me back to when I taught my CS students how to count in different bases—my method was just like Neil's, and my students were just as lost as Chuck!

[samwho]

OMG Chuck was under extreme pressure. I am surprised he did not just say, "F this. I am not getting paid enough for this"
But it made me LOL

[Kngdaveed]

i almost died when he said "Dont even ask me, dont you dare ask me to count Quantum bits"

[Flexxed]

The ending was DIABOLOCAL!! One of the funniest videos to date. To be fair to Chuck though, he is usually very quick with picking up on how the things Neil talks about works, maybe numbers just isn't his thing. Also, It is quite nice to see a video of someone struggling with grasping a concept and is still willing to put it out on the internet for others to see, we all have things we struggle with understanding.

[squeebers]

Neil's patience for Chuck in this vid is larger than the observable universe 😂😂

[EricDavidRocks]

Lesson: don't talk to Neil after edibles.

[christoffadriaanvanrooyen]

12:38 "I don't play that 😂" - come on, Neil, you know what Chuck meant 😂😂😂. I love when we really get to see their honest, real reactions to one another's statements. Neil explaining all these complicated concepts to a layman like Chuck who's witty, curious, and has learnt so much over the years makes this content so much easier to understand and so relatable to people like me who are interested in the topics but by no means experts. Neil and Chuck forever ❤❤

[lefthandedsock]

The look on Chuck's face at the very last second is phenomenal. Just a blank stare into the distance, and Neil's sly grin. Give that man a piece of paper.

[SnakuPlisskin]

Watching Chuck try to work it out was delightful. We grow up with a very specific notion of what 10 means and it can be really hard to get your head around the fact that it can mean something else in other bases. His mind just didn't want to go to 10 because he already knows what 10 means so it just isn't available as an option when he needs to find 5 or 16. Then you can see that he finally gets it when he gets to 1000 in binary. Niel is a great educator

[classicaltrombone]

If you call 1-0 "ten" every time it becomes blatantly obvious. "01234 TEN" to illustrate base 5 is illuminating. This was so painful and somehow I appreciate Neil never just giving the answer. You learn a lot more from a student's mistake than just spitting information at them every time they struggle.