Using binary with bent/straight fingers gets you up to 31. There are other ways - like touching your thumb to different phalanges of different fingers, for 0…12.
Bend them the other way. Start with all fingers open for zero, and curl them as needed. You only need to move them a bit, so even twenty (thumb and ring finger back, the others curled) isn’t too hard.
you can cheat it quite easily, just hover your hand over a table or surface, and touch your fingers to the surface to indicate a 1, and dont to indicate a zero, works on your leg, or someone elses, if you felt like it i guess.
great point… and if after the 12 you start touching your thumb to the other side of those phalanges, you now have 24. now each time you go through the 24 cycle, your other hand can tick along the same cycle like an hour hand. now you are counting to 550+ with 2 hands.
I was able to get to this number: 1 048 576 by using base 4 and making each finger a different “10” s place using each finger segment and the tip of the palm below it but you have to keep track of how many of each order of magnitude you have by yourself. Alternatively, just use a piece of paper.
Using binary with bent/straight fingers gets you up to 31. There are other ways - like touching your thumb to different phalanges of different fingers, for 0…12.
I never thought about doing it that way, so I counted in binary with my right hand… Tricky but oddly satisfying
Edit: shit, I’m getting faster at this. I might have to convert
Imagine how boss a culture would be being able to count up to 31 on a single hand, and 1023 with two hands.
I’m physically unable to make 8 in binary with my fingers.
My finger just refuses to go up by itself, it will just go up with its friends.
Yeah, 4 is tricky socially and 8 is tricky anatomically. I touch it to something, as an alternative to holding it up.
18 is 🤘
17 is 🤙 right?
I can do it but I have to hold down the other fingers with my thumb or by pinching them into the palm of my hand.
I don’t bother to fold my fingers all the way when I do it. All you need is a binary on/off, so just bending any discernible amount is sufficient.
Bend them the other way. Start with all fingers open for zero, and curl them as needed. You only need to move them a bit, so even twenty (thumb and ring finger back, the others curled) isn’t too hard.
Try bending at the first finger joints instead of at the knuckles.
Flip your hand around
Then its a different finger
you can cheat it quite easily, just hover your hand over a table or surface, and touch your fingers to the surface to indicate a 1, and dont to indicate a zero, works on your leg, or someone elses, if you felt like it i guess.
Help! I was counting and somehow hit negative 15. Is there a bug?
In American Sign Language you can sign at least up to 99910 with one hand
Well at that point you can also draw any number in air, no?
Or use a piece of paper, as long as you don’t steady it with your other hand.
great point… and if after the 12 you start touching your thumb to the other side of those phalanges, you now have 24. now each time you go through the 24 cycle, your other hand can tick along the same cycle like an hour hand. now you are counting to 550+ with 2 hands.
Or you could just use the 10 fingers, 2^10 is 1024, so you can count from 0 to 1023
You can technically count to 6000000000 with one hand and a way to measure angles
0…16 if you add fingertips.
You can count up to 99 with your hands if you use them like a Japanese abacus.
Up to 1023 if you use binary!
I was able to get to this number: 1 048 576 by using base 4 and making each finger a different “10” s place using each finger segment and the tip of the palm below it but you have to keep track of how many of each order of magnitude you have by yourself. Alternatively, just use a piece of paper.
Doesn’t work for people with connected muscles for pinkies😔
Can get to 14 by counting knuckles.