cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/53581443
YSK You can count past 1,000 on your fingers by using binary, instead of just 10
With just one hand, you can count to 31, and with both hands you can reach a whopping 1,023. This is because the placement of the held up fingers matters, rather than the amount.
It can be very useful in everyday use, being able to count to huge numbers when you don’t have your phone or pen and paper nearby.
In decimal I can show a 1’111’111’111 with fingers. A billion is bigger than a thousand.
You can show that much, but not count to it. With 10 fingers you have 1024 unique permutations, so stsrting from 0, you can only get to 1023.
It could still be possible if you’re able to handle your fingers in more than 4 positions and are very patient.
Mmm but what if I flip my hands over - gives me 4096…
Hands thumb towards vs thumb away from me? 16384…
Introduce a finger bent state and now we’re at 944,784…
Straight/bent a little/bent a lot/closed + 4 hand orientations each gets you over 16M
As I said, more than 4 positions.
But you can’t count until more than 10 in decimal. That’s what’s being compared here.
With only two states for each finger, you cant count past 1 in decimal. You can count up to 10 in unary.
*unary