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One of the stories I am working on is Math World. This is in fact a galaxy with several different solar systems. Arithmetic, the one I am working on right now has planets from planet base 2 closest to the star to planet base 62.

Base 2, Base 3, Base 4, Base 5, Base 6, and Base 7 are all in the hot zone.

When a number becomes pregnant in the hot zone a heat shield is formed around the developing number. This super elastic heat shield stays with the baby. From pregnancy to 1 year the number is in the heat shield full time but other numbers can reach into the heat shield to feed the growing number, play, and several other things. From 1 year to 26 years(end of college) on base 2 and 13 years(7th grade) on base 7 the heat shield is on part time to acclimate the number to the heat. The part time increases every year until finally the number is acclimated to the heat and doesn't need it.

The same thing happens in the cold zone from base 13 to base 62 only with cold shields instead. The same number of years as boundaries but there are many more planets in the cold zone. They have their own year and day but that is besides the point.

The goldilocks zone is from base 8 to base 12 and numbers don't need a temperature shield for this zone.

A number born in the arctic or antarctic will have more brown fat(Warming up kind of fat) than white fat(energy reserves in case there isn't enough glucose). This does mean however that the number needs a high amount of glucose.

There are 2 things I am wondering and they both relate to these different bases.

1) Given the year boundaries for the shields and the fact that for the other planets in the hot zone and cold zone it is proportional, how can I calculate how many years the number will have the shield on part time and thus how many years it will have the shield on from birth?

and

2) The economics is complex here. For a given type of currency(in other words dollars, pesos etc.) the exchange rate is 1:1, even if it isn't nearly that in real life. Each planet has a different currency. So 2 planets can have dollars but the dollars might be completely different. Let me give you an example using base 10 and base 2.

Example:

Base 10 is running well until almost everybody gets infected with a virus. Money production stops(in this case it is the 3rd zimbabwe dollar) and a family that hasn't been infected by the virus finds out that 2 II is pregnant with twins(I use roman numerals if there is the same number again. So because there are two 2's I have 2 and 2 II.) There are trillions of dollars in the reserves but they want to use as little as possible of the reserves(basically only for pay and city maintenance). Anyway this family is in desperate need of money because the pregnant number is sick with severe viral pneumonia(which is caused by a different virus than the outbreak).

Base 2 on the other hand is running nicely producing a surplus of money. 20 calls planet base 2 and asks them for a billion dollars. Base 2 transports the 1 billion dollars. They are still base 2 dollars but need to be converted to base 10 dollars. 20 puts it through the base converter and it gets converted into base 10 dollars. They put a mask on the pregnant number's face and take her to the doctor as fast as possible to limit virus exposure both to the family members and the viral outbreak surrounding them. The doctor leaves the pregnant number in the hospital for the rest of her pregnancy to prevent other numbers from getting the virus she has and so that the doctor knows that the virus is completely gone before she gives birth.

Currently the interplanetary money transport is like this:

Production -> Teleportation(which relies partly on electricity) -> Conversion through base converter after it lands on the planet that needs money.

But I want the conversion step to essentially be lost. So how can I make it automatically convert from 1 base to another while it is being sent?

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  • Are you considering only physical currency is to be moved from planet to planet? They don't have access to digital methods? – Frostfyre Dec 25 '15 at 04:37
  • By base 2 sending 1 billion dollars, do you mean they send 1000000000₂ DollarsFromPlanetBase2, which is equal to 512₁₀ DollarsFromPlanetBase2 (using the standard mathematical notation of denoting bases as subscripts) and then goes through an exchange rate (maybe 1:1.5, to choose an arbitrary example) to end up at 768₁₀ DollarsFromPlanetBase10? – Cort Ammon Dec 25 '15 at 07:45
  • No. In money production, every base other than base 10 has a conversion chart from base 10 to whatever base the planet is. So I mean that they send 1000000000 base 10 dollars in base 2 or if you want it expressed in base 2 111011100110101100101000000000 dollars – Caters Dec 25 '15 at 10:56
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    I suppose you have some creative idea, but your write-up is hard to understand. Start with "When a number becomes pregnant... " that needs some lead-up. Do you mean living numerals like the joke "789"? Or does number mean "a member of the species"? – JDługosz Dec 25 '15 at 12:41
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    So what does it mean to you to "automatically convert from 1 base to another?" Is that merely an act of money changing, unrelated to mathematics, or are you trying to make a mathematical allegory? – Cort Ammon Dec 25 '15 at 16:24
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    (And as a programmer, I will opine that base 2 and base 16 will convert directly without relying on some silly arbitrary base 10 standard. Part of what makes bases neat is when you realize just how arbitrary they can be, and yet they're all equally powerful) – Cort Ammon Dec 25 '15 at 16:25
  • I mean living numerals, not a member of the species. I mean that mathematically the amount sent in base x is converted to the amount that is received in base y without having to go through the base converter after it is sent and received. In other words conversion and transport happening at the same time. – Caters Jan 03 '16 at 17:02
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    There are some interesting questions here but the description is a bit messy/confusing - and also you are asking multiple questions in one which both makes it harder to answer and to rate questions. – Tim B Jan 06 '16 at 11:30

1 Answers1

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There is an stellar system.

This stellar system has planets.

The planets are arranged as follows:

  • 6 internal planets (1 to 6), in what is known as the "hot zone".
  • 5 intermediate planets (7 to 11), in what is known as the "goldilocks zone".
  • 49 exterior planets (12 to 61), in what isknown as the "cold zone".

There are some extrange creatures that inhabit this plants. All the planet has population.

In both the hot zone and the cold zone, there exists some magic shields that are put in place to protect the fetus as soon as pregancy starts. These shields protect the individual from the extreme temperatures of the planets. The shield stay with the baby and young individual as it grows. Other individuals can reach into the shield and interact with the infant.

The shield of an individual will eventually weaken and stay on only intermittently, this allows the individual to develop its natural resitence to the natural temperature, which they should have as adults.

The time until they reach a point where they no longer need the shield varies from planet to planet.

In planet 1 - which is the closer to the star - the shield will last for 26 years, while the sixth planet from the star it will last only 13 years.

A creature from a cold region will have more brown fat (Warming up kind of fat) than white fat (energy reserves in case there isn't enough glucose). This means that the creature needs a high amount of glucose.

Given the year boundaries for the shields and the fact that for the other planets in the hot zone and cold zone it is proportional, how can I calculate how many years the number will have the shield on part time and thus how many years it will have the shield on from birth?

We have these two data points:

  • At planet 1, it takes 26 years.
  • At planet 6, it takes 13 years.

And we are assuming that this "year" is the same unit. That means that those measurements are not in the years of each respective planets. Because if they are... then we need the orbital period of the planets, and as such the answer is: there is not enough information.

As I understand it, the number of years for the shields goes abrubtly form 13 years in planet 6 to 0 years in planet 7 (the first one of the goldilocks zone). So, there would not be a single smooth curve that describe the number of years for all the planets.

Now, because there are no more data points, the simpler aproximation is to say that the function - at least of the hot zone - is linear.

We can calculate the delta of year from planet to planet: The diffence from planet 1 to planet 6 is 26 years - 13 years = 13 years. So it changes 13 along 6 planets, or 13/6 years per planet.

Since 13 is prime I will not simplify the expression, and I will not try to convert it to months or days, because I don't know how those play out on your system - if they exists at all.

The economics is complex here. For a given type of currency (...) the exchange rate is 1:1, even if it isn't nearly that in real life. Each planet has a different currency. So 2 planets can have dollars but the dollars might be completely different.

(...)

Currently the interplanetary money transport is like this:

Production -> Teleportation (which relies partly on electricity) -> Conversion through base (unit) after it lands on the planet that needs money.

But I want the conversion step to essentially be lost. So how can I make it automatically convert from 1 base to another while it is being sent?

The way the equivalent is done currently in the real world, is that each electronic account has a defined currency. And whatever ammount of money is in the account, it is in that currency. When an electronic transaction occurs, it is responsability of the machine to do the appropiate conversions.

If we assume that we are not shipping the money from planet to planet, then the unit conversion has to happen in the machines used to do the electronic transaction^1.

Now, let's assume that we ship the money. In that case, the recieving party in the destination planet will now have some money that belongs to another planet. If this money is not accepted currency in this planet, they will have to go to the bank and change it for the accepted currency. It is now the bank at the destination planet the one that's doing the exchange (not some mahcine that convert bills from one kind to the other)...

But what does the bank do with the alien money? They could loan it to the original planet, where there is people who want it, and demand some interest in payment. Or they could use it to buy stuff from the other planet - and that way the money goes back to its original planet.

^1: The OP, had the idea that each planet uses a different numeric base. Such that planet 1 uses Base 2 (which coincidently is the name of the planet), the planet 2 uses base 3, and so on... But the question is... do the machines also internally use these bases? Or - by any chance - they are all using binary internally?

If the machines share base, and the conversion rate is 1:1, there is no conversion needed.

On the other hand, if they use different bases, the machines still require a common physical protocol (that dictates how to encode information for transmission) that is understood by the machines of all planets (which may suggest they share origin). And in this common physical protocol the ammounts will have to be encoded in some base.

You may argue: "Oh.. they send the number and send in what base it is!" well no. Because you have to send the number (and the number of the base for that matter) in some base. And I supect you were imagining base 10, all bases are base 10 in themselves.

So, the simple solution is to have the machines share base.

Now, the elephant in the room.

Whatever or not you ship money phisically or electronically, you are causing the ammount of currency available in one planet to chance. As one currency becomes more escarse, it is only natural that the exchange rate will no longer be 1:1.

For the exchange rate to remain 1:1, all the planets need to belong to a single economic zone - an economic zone is often a country. This probably means that there is - at most - only one - official - emissor of money. That emmisor may or may not be phsically located on one of the planets, it could be an institution spread across the different planets, and able to emit more money form any of them.

Since there is - at most - a single emmisor, there could be a prefered numerical base for money.

Note: it is possible that there are no emmisors at all. It could be the case that the economy is based on a fixed available ammount of currecny. We know that this doesn't work for small economies, because some regions may run out, which in turn changes the value demand of the currency. Another case is to have the equivalent of the gold standard, with no official emmissors. Instead anybody who can mint gold, well... is creating currency. In that case you don't convert it, you just weigh it.

All the planets belonging to a single political institution makes sense, after all, they seem to share language, they have commerce, and have similar culture - with the shields and stuff.

And the OP claim, they are all numbers - so, I guess they are the same race too.

In abstract, for the economic question there are only two simple solutions:

  • The planets quickly diverge their exchange rate.
  • The planets join in a single economic zone, with a single currency.

Note: Lets assume that because of some brain impediment the - average - creatues of this planets can only understand one numeric base. If that is the case, then all the changes are in the visualization. The money is not changing, just what is presented to the user changes. Just how you may have a software be localized to different countries that use different languages and units, but you don't - usually - have to put the software into a machine that conversts it, instead the translation is provided and you choose which one you want.

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