That page also brings up the whole "but division" problem with balanced ternary, however, I personally suspect that http://degiorgi.math.hr/aaa_sem/Div_Krishna/887-889.pdf ("A Division Algorithm for Signed-Digit Arithmetic" by Chin Tung, from 1968 !) might offer an overlooked path to a solution to that problem
And see also also², this quote from TAOCP:
"Cauchy pointed out that negative digits make it unneccesary for a person to memorize the multiplication table past 5x5."
The—INCREDIBLY ANNOYING TO LOCATE—source for which is "105. Calculs numériques. sur les moyens d'éviter les erreurs dans les calculs numériques." on Pdf page 445/document page 431 here:
( +a vaguely related paper here on quantum mechanics & radix economy, BUT it makes the mistake of using an overly specific formula applicable only to unsigned-digit representations thus drawing the wrong conclusions: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Vladimir_Garcia-Morales... )
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat_(unit) (make sure to read the footnotes, too)
Edit: See also also, on the radix economy of balanced ternary (called "tristate") vs base 3: https://web.archive.org/web/20090312094241/http://abhijit.in... + a wild Marvin Minsky appears: https://archive.fo/gL2Bv
That page also brings up the whole "but division" problem with balanced ternary, however, I personally suspect that http://degiorgi.math.hr/aaa_sem/Div_Krishna/887-889.pdf ("A Division Algorithm for Signed-Digit Arithmetic" by Chin Tung, from 1968 !) might offer an overlooked path to a solution to that problem
And see also also², this quote from TAOCP:
"Cauchy pointed out that negative digits make it unneccesary for a person to memorize the multiplication table past 5x5."
The—INCREDIBLY ANNOYING TO LOCATE—source for which is "105. Calculs numériques. sur les moyens d'éviter les erreurs dans les calculs numériques." on Pdf page 445/document page 431 here:
https://www.e-rara.ch/download/pdf/5702285?name=Tome%2520V%4...
See also also³: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5f77/b1cf105024b41b6824ba91... (Vince, Andrew - Radix Representation and Rep-Tiling)
( +a vaguely related paper here on quantum mechanics & radix economy, BUT it makes the mistake of using an overly specific formula applicable only to unsigned-digit representations thus drawing the wrong conclusions: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Vladimir_Garcia-Morales... )