Unlucky One-Three
Someone reasons that fear of the 13th floor is about the digits, then works out which number would be unlucky in other bases.
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Cartoon by Ben Orlin, Math with Bad Drawings. https://cartoons.mathwithbaddrawings.com/2018-10-04-unlucky-one-three/ (CC BY-NC 4.0)Transcript
A: "I've noticed many tall buildings have no 13th floor. The 12th floor is immediately followed by the '14th.' The fact that this satisfies people means that they don't really fear the number 13, but merely the numerals '1' and '3' in succession."
A: "Thus, in base twelve, people would fear the number we call '15.' In octal, they'd worry about our '11.' And the citizens of base three would live beyond such phobias, fearless and proud, embracing all numbers."
B: "Or maybe we're just easily deceived and superstitions are irrational?" A: "Irrationality?! But that's a property independent of base!"