This article is about Nystrom's proposed base 16 notation. For the musical system, see tonality.
Proposed clock-face with noon on top The proposed figures on the right are based on rotations of those on the left (assigning value 10 to symbol 9).
The tonal system is a base 16 system of notation (predating the widespread use of hexadecimal in computing), arithmetic, and metrology proposed in 1859 by John W. Nystrom.[1] In addition to new weights and measures, his proposal included a new calendar with sixteen months, a new system of coinage, and a clock with sixteen major divisions of the day (called tims). Nystrom advocated his system thus:
I am not afraid, or do not hesitate, to advocate a binary system of arithmetic and metrology. I know I have nature on my side; if I do not succeed to impress upon you its utility and great importance to mankind, it will reflect that much less credit upon our generation, upon scientific men and philosophers.[2]
^Nystrom, John W. Project of a New System of Arithmetic, Weight, Measure and Coins, Proposed to be Called the Tonal System, with Sixteen to the Base
^(Quotation: John W. Nystrom, ca. 1863) The Art of Computer Programming section 4.1, Donald Knuth.
The tonalsystem is a base 16 system of notation (predating the widespread use of hexadecimal in computing), arithmetic, and metrology proposed in 1859...
Look up tonal in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Tonal may refer to: Tonal (mythology), a concept in the belief systems and traditions of Mesoamerican...
from the ♭VII chord suggests that the progression originated before the tonalsystem in the modal approach of the time of Palestrina, where the tonic must...
W. Nystrom in Project of a New System of Arithmetic, Weight, Measure and Coins: Proposed to be called the TonalSystem, with Sixteen to the Base, published...
modal system Bach's insistence on the tonalsystem and contribution to shaping it did not imply he was less at ease with the older modal system and the...
Tonalism was an artistic style that emerged in the 1880s when American artists began to paint landscape forms with an overall tone of colored atmosphere...
harmonic idioms in popular music are tonal, and none is without function."[vague] Tonality is an organized system of tones (e.g., the tones of a major...
narrowly, the term atonality describes music that does not conform to the system of tonal hierarchies that characterized European classical music between the...
of 16 church tones (echoi), the author of this treatise introduces a tonalsystem of 10 echoi. Nevertheless, both schools have in common a set of 4 octaves...
There are many different numeral systems, that is, writing systems for expressing numbers. Numeral systems are classified here as to whether they use...
to fully apply, with an expressive and structuring purpose, the new tonalsystem, consolidated after at least two hundred years of experimentation. As...
has had significant Chinese influence especially in vocabulary and tonalsystem. Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary accounts for about 30–60% of Vietnamese vocabulary...
Nystrom in 1863 as part of his tonalsystem. In 1997, the American Mark Vincent Rogers of Intuitor proposed a similar system of hexadecimal time and implemented...
features is an elaborate noun class system with grammatical concord. A large majority of languages of this family are tonal such as Yoruba and Igbo, Akan and...
Carnatic music. It has several components - primordial sound (nāda), tonalsystem (swara), pitch (śruti), scale, ornaments (gamaka) and important tones...
it presents tonality on horizontal paths. The tonalsystem, too, flows into these as well, a system intended to bring purposeful order into the world...
class system and that verbs are marked for aspect. Most Gur languages to the north of Senufo have a two tone downstep system, but the tonalsystem of the...
from those that are "tempered" or "imperfect" in various other tuning systems, such as equal temperament. The perfect unison has a pitch ratio 1:1, the...
Scriabin, whose metaphysical and mystical views greatly influenced his tonalsystem and compositional output, became interested in theosophy while living...
languages in Southeast Asia and East Asia, Vietnamese is highly analytic and is tonal. It has head-initial directionality, with subject–verb–object order and...
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