Ethnomathematician Capstone
📋 What it is
The capstone: compare number systems across cultures — different BASES (10, 20, 60) and symbols, one shared human idea of quantity.
🗣️ Coach says
This is where it all connects. Every culture invented a way to count, and the differences are the base (how they group) and the symbols. Base-10 (fingers), base-20 (fingers and toes), base-60 (Babylon). Zero was discovered more than once. An "ethnomathematician" studies math as a HUMAN, worldwide creation — no single culture owns it.
🧠 Memory hook
Different BASES + symbols, one shared idea of quantity. Math is a worldwide human invention.
😂 Giggle
Fibonacci's favorite thing about nature?
Everything comes in a sequence!
😲 Whoa!
Because computers group in twos, base-2 (binary) is just one more entry in humanity’s long list of number bases.
✅ Quick check: Base-10, base-20, and base-60 all differ in what?
Say your answer out loud first — then reveal.
The size of the GROUP used to bundle counts (ten, twenty, or sixty).
A number system’s base is simply how many units it groups before "carrying" to the next place.
🪄 Trick question: Is base-10 the "correct" or most natural number base?
Careful — think it through, then reveal.
No — it is just the one that spread widely; base-20 and base-60 work equally well.
Any base can represent every number; base-10 is a human choice (ten fingers), not a mathematical rule.
🧪 Try it! (2 minutes)
Match each base to its likely origin: 10 (fingers), 20 (fingers + toes), 60 (Babylonian). Explain your reasoning.