Gadgetory

welcome back to another episode of mini science what am I doing here let's ask a question from Google search why don't computers use base three this is an interesting question so a base is essentially a number of value any number of possible outcomes base two is binary since only values 0 and 1 are possible base 3 incorporates a third value our basic number system is based 10 since we use 10 values 0 through 9 to create any series of numbers ideally the higher the base the more information can be relayed for line but in order to understand the premise of the question we should first briefly run through how data is transmitted today binary code is the most powerful language on the planet but it looks like this just a bunch of ones and zeros however the arrangement of these digits denotes specific instructions and values the medium of exchange in this case is the operating system encoding and decoding commands dictated by the user a CPU utilizes up to its billions of transistors in order to process this data hence its name central processing unit fundamentally a single transistor either acts like an on-off switch or an amplifier for all intents and purposes in this discussion and on-off switch will do and it's open on state a certain voltage is allowed to pass this is the threshold voltage in its closed one it does not electrons will still leak through a closed state but not above this voltage threshold assigning one to open and zero to closed any command could send a series of electrical signals to the CPU to be executed by the logic unit GPU the list goes on so you can see why binary code and say the modern tri-gate transistor worked together so well you only have two possible outcomes for signal interpretation open and closed 1 or 0 0 but a signal can also be well half open in comes base 3 where a third state exists the benefit of base 3 involves data transmission theoretically the higher the base the more information can be transmitted but every transistor in the base 3 system would require a new power identifier way to discern between two voltage thresholds vs. 1 this increases the risk of error this would require additional resources amplified not only by the sheer number of transistors in a unit but also extreme size constraints binary systems are relatively self-correcting so the signals degrade over time and voltage fluctuations become more and more prevalent a base-2 system won't be as sensitive to those fluctuations because the threshold is usually pretty big in comparison but as we increase the base number to the base 3 base 5 especially when it comes to something like base 10 those systems become more and more sensitive to tinier and tinier changes in voltage there go a certain value based on a specific voltage might be interpreted as a different value because of that small degree of variance precise engineering is only so precise and over time operating systems designed around higher based code would degrade a signal noise inevitably increased so there are undoubtedly massive barriers between modern computers and higher based computation the short and sweet answer it would cost a lot of money and require extreme levels of engineering to design systems accurate and reliable enough to replace modern computers we do have base 3 adaptations in a few forms of flash storage as someone forms have pointed out but the idea of consumer-grade systems utilizing anything other than binary at this point is unrealistic if you liked this video thought it was cool something new be sure to give this one a thumbs-up thumbs-down 40 I'll physically you subscribe button if you haven't already and stay tuned for more videos like this this is science to do thanks for learning