[John Jamieson]

Yes, heating and cooling calculation from HVAC contractors do the same thing in degree-days using 68 for heating and say 76 for cooling as the base.

It has nothing to do with number systems like octal, decimal, binary, or hex.

[bvw]

So "base ten", meaning degrees-above-10-degress-centigrade is a term of Goff's invention or of the literature in his field?

[pinz-n-needlez]

So, as a credentialed geek yourself.... :-)

Was Goff bending over backwards to sound officious and hard-to-understand, in your expert opinion? Or am I just having an obtuse day?

I'll admit that I flunked out of college twice -- so far.