[Math] What would base 0 be? How would/could it work

number-systems

If I was trying to take the number $123$ in base $10$ and try and convert it into base zero I would do something like this:

$123 = 100 + 20 + 3$

$10^{\log_0(100)} + 10^{\log_0(20)} + 10^{\log_0(3)}$

But $\log_0(x)$ is the same thing as $\dfrac{\log(x)}{\log(0)}$ and the log of zero is undefined. So is there any other way to convert to base zero? Or does base zero simply not exist?

Best Answer

Base 0 does not make any mathematical sense.

Look at binary (base 2). There are two digits, 0 and 1. Thus, every other number you need to roll over the 1 back to a zero, and add 1 to the next column.

Now, look at base 1. Now, every number requires rolling over to the next row. This is essentially a tally system, where each '1' (in base ten) gets it's own column.

Now, if you think about base 0, that would mean every increase by '1' in any non-zero base represents an infinite amount of columns that need to be created to support the overflow. Thus, every number in base 0 would essentially be infinite, or even worse, every number would be the same number.