The 16% mistfallen why not 1/16

[Galladon he/him]

My thoughts are those:

16/100 is a ratio which makes sense in the typcal decimal system but it looses all it's meaning if you were to convert it to e.g. the hexadecimal. 100 is a logical choice but only by human standards. 

 

My real question is : why not 1/16???

 

It makes much more sense (natural events are often based on ratios : eg. Genetics).

percent is simply a random choice : ratios are almost law.

 

I couldn't find any answeres yet I hope someone can help me out:

 

[Senor Feesh]

Preservation CHOSE the ratio, and Preservation is held by Leras, who was human. He wanted it to be a distinctly non-natural ratio, as a sign to his followers.

 

Brandon Sanderson

Preservation wanted Atium and Malatium to be of use to the people, as he recognized that it would be a very powerful tool—and that using it up could help defeat Ruin. But he also recognized that sixteen was a mythological important number, and felt it would make the best sign for his followers. So he took out the most unlikely (difficult to make and use) metals for his sign to his followers.

 

source

Edited July 8, 2013 by Senor Feesh

[Galladon he/him]

Well this much I know- I know he is human. The unnatural part is not percent but the exactness of the numbers (exactly 1 in 16 is equally ominous as 16%).

I am more concerned about the author intend. 

Besides I think statisticians (nurden- don't know how to spell the scribes name)  look to ratios first because if you want to find consistancies you'll never find them in percentages.

Percent is simply something that has an extrem earth base etymology (origination 15-16 hundert from italien merchants).

Sanderson is an author which I perceive as very maticulous in the planning of his world, so why use percent , it's like using 'Monday'.

 

In extension to that why not switch from decimal to hexadecimal altogether in this world??

 

 

I don't want to antagonize, just looking for answeres .

P.s.: sorry for my abismal use of ',' , english is not my native language.

[Random man]

Well this much I know- I know he is human. The unnatural part is not percent but the exactness of the numbers (exactly 1 in 16 is equally ominous as 16%).

I am more concerned about the author intend. 

Besides I think statisticians (nurden- don't know how to spell the scribes name)  look to ratios first because if you want to find consistancies you'll never find them in percentages.

 

I think that is the point of it being unnatural, statistics are never perfectly accurate on the small scale but in this case it is.  Always getting 16% regardless of sample size or trial is impossible.

 

Percent is simply something that has an extrem earth base etymology (origination 15-16 hundert from italien merchants).

Sanderson is an author which I perceive as very maticulous in the planning of his world, so why use percent , it's like using 'Monday'.

 

The first look at probability theory that I can find is Cardano's Book on Games and Chance written in 1526.  Statistics is just the analysis of probability (how often the dice say you win), so I would assume any place that has both gambling and intelligent gambles statistics will eventually be developed.  Gamblers are always looking to get a better chance at winning so if they are smart they look to statistics, which I would believe would be a constant.

 

Not meant to seem rude (apologies if it does) just trying to explain my take on it.

Edited July 8, 2013 by Random man

[happyman he/him]

Two points:

 

In the Cosmere, both 10 and 16 have inherent significance, unlike the real world, where neither appears to have inherent significance.

 

The 16% was used on purpose by Preservation as a signal to humanity.  Part of this was because Ruin couldn't mess with it---it was too fundamental.

 

My guess was that Preservation tied two fundamental numbers together (16 and 10) in a very fundamental way to get 16%, knowing that it would be easy for people to spot.

 

Thus it was partly world-building, partly culture.

[Phantom Monstrosity]

Either that, or Ruin didn't know it was something he COULD mess with.

[Morsk he/him]

I see it as a combination of coincidence and something deliberately unnatural, so it doesn't have to make a lot of sense.

The planet using base-10 and percents is coincidence. It's like how these aliens from another planet, in a universe where Earth doesn't exist, somehow look and act like humans. On the Mistborn planet, they even have European architecture and accents. It doesn't have to happen that way, and there isn't really a reason; it just did.

The 16% thing was supposed to look weird, and does look weird. Unfortunately, it confuses readers not just the characters! That's what Preservation wanted though. He wanted it to look obviously unnatural, and it does.

Edited July 8, 2013 by Morsk

[Shivertongue he/him]

Because cupcakes.

[Phantom Monstrosity]

Also, if it were 1/16, you wouldn't have an easy way of showing off the atium burners!  They only ratio that even vaguely makes sense is 1/256 - which would leave the Mistfallen Brigade conspicuously understrength.

[Galladon he/him]

I'm sorry for posting again but I think I didn't get my point across:

 

1: Etymology of percent: Italien merchents, accoutants,etc adepted it from the latin expression and thereby estabished it as the common method to compare figures, it later got meaning in statistics. This means common use of this term is clearly bound to italien merchants, which in turn means the origin is directly tied to our society. It is as if the doctors in the mistborn world would also use mmHg as the unit for pressure, or meters for length. 

 

2: 

Random man: I think that is the point of it being unnatural, statistics are never perfectly accurate on the small scale but in this case it is.  Always getting 16% regardless of sample size or trial is impossible.

I wrote the very thing and counter argument here:

The unnatural part is not percent but the exactness of the numbers (exactly 1 in 16 is equally ominous as 16%).

 

 

I really like the idea that it was supposed to be the combination of two important numbers 10 and 16, since this leaves only on logical dinominator : 100 (16/10 =haha; 16/1000 too few). But I'm still not entirely happy with percent instead of 16 of 100 (due to it's etymology).

edit:

To Phantom : you're right it would cut their numbers by about 2.5 which means again that you're right that 16/100 is the only sensible option.

 

 

I know I'm obsessing too much, but it's been nagging on me for quiet some time.

Edited July 8, 2013 by Galladon

[Phantom Monstrosity]

1: Etymology of percent: Italien merchents, accoutants,etc adepted it from the latin expression and thereby estabished it as the common method to compare figures, it later got meaning in statistics. This means common use of this term is clearly bound to italien merchants, which in turn means the origin is directly tied to our society. It is as if the doctors in the mistborn world would also use mmHg as the unit for pressure, or meters for length.

 

Hardly.  It's like saying that a character is 'mooning over' another one, or that they performed a 'homicidal hat trick', or calling it Cadmium, named after the greek king/transformed dragon Cadmus. 

 

Using a base 10 system isn't universal, true, but it's also far from uncommon.

Edited July 8, 2013 by Phantom Monstrosity

[Morsk he/him]

I also don't think "percents" need to be tied into something done by Italian merchants. It's a pretty simple concept.

Percent just means "divided by 100". 50% is 50 / 100. That's all. Anyone can come up with it; it's just choosing a standard denominator for comparing fractions, to make it easier. If you do 60 it's called minutes, 360 and it's degrees, 100 and it's percent.

Edited July 8, 2013 by Morsk

[Senor Feesh]

Agree with Morsk; using base 10 simply makes sense for humans as we have 10 digits on our hands, it's a logical place to base the numbering system from. That said, once you use base 10, decimalisation is a logical progression, so using percentages isn't too much of a stretch really. 1.6/10 is less useful than 16/100, whilst 160/1000 is unwieldy, and more fine detail than most people would need.