Bases.

[thomas_decker@mastodon.online]

@futurebird In German we have a useful word: Ziffer (single digit number) - as opposed to Zahl (any number)

[itgrrl@infosec.exchange]

@futurebird maybe you could start by introducing the concept of character sets (ASCII probably being the most “obvious” one to start with⁾ so that the students get familiar /comfortable with the idea that even “simple” things like numbers & letters are encoded in computer-land, which could then flow into a discussion of both bases & variables 🤔
 
 
 
^ I’d suggest also the Unicode emoticons / emoji block for the fun factor but then you’re into multi-byte encodings & modifiers which seems you’d probably be throwing students into the deep end waaay too soon

[grant_h@mastodon.social]

@futurebird I go with "symbols" in Yr10 when I teach it. Certainly avoid "number", because one of the big ideas is to separate the notion of "number" from its representation.
Fun if I have Arabic or Korean or Chinese students. I ask them to write up their digits.

[dancingtreefrog@mastodon.social]

@apophis @futurebird Hmm, never bothered me, but I went to high school in the late 1960s and studied English in university through the 1970s. I guess I'm just weird.

[jorge@social.jagedn.dev]

@futurebird maybe don't use letters or numbers, use emojis for example

Base 2: 😀😭
Base 3: 😀😅😭

[mansr@society.oftrolls.com]

@futurebird @merms @graydon I once saw a demonstration (by some maths guy on TV) of doing long division with Roman numerals. It was indeed strange.

[oblomov@sociale.network]

@futurebird @dancingtreefrog I vote for digits too. And you can make an example of weird digits even before getting to base 16 if you want to try your luck at teach them about balanced ternary after showing them the classic unbalanced version (use the the upper-side down 1 for the -1 value in writing, or T if typing: «why T?» «Because the Setun never gained commercial success»).

[oblomov@sociale.network]

@futurebird @dancingtreefrog BTW I've done this with my kids and their cousins, age 10-16. I have a writeup in Italian about it, called «Twenty twenties» (twenty different ways of writing twenty):
https://wok.oblomov.eu/mathesis/venti-venti/