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Comment by gorgoiler | Hacker News Reader

Conundrum: our hands give us eleven symbols: various fingers and thumbs for 1 to 9, everything out for ten, and closed fists for zero.

While the sociologists are off figuring out why this gave us a base ten number system instead of base eleven, the computer scientists are showing off how they can count to a thousand instead.

(And also get thrown out of every bar where they order four of something.)

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You can actually conveniently count to 12 with one hand. Use the tip of the finger, the first and second finger joints * 4 fingers = 12. Then use the thumb as the pointer to keep track.

A base-12 number system would be advantageous because 12 is a "superior highly composite number". However, needless to say, despite the number theoretical advantages changing from our current base-10 system is essentially impossible.

Well you could count to 31 with one hand (5 fingers = 5 bits) and to 1023 with two hands (10 fingers = 10 bits) but not as conveniently :)

Note that other cultures started numbering the individual finger bones using their thumb, ending up with a base 12 or 24 system (or so the "just so" story goes).

Regardless of its origin, base 12 is still a major part of our lives (24 hours to a day, 60 minutes to an hour, even 60 minutes to a grade in angles).

Just use each finger as a binary digit, open or cloned, and you can get to 1023. If you're really struggling to count you might add your eyes, elbows or and knees and get to 2^16 - 1. That should be enough for anyone.

There are 4 kinds of people: those who count binary on their fingers, and the other three kinds can f--- off.

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