> > koala"although technically, isn't it still counting on your fingers?"mom
>
> Perhaps, but I can store larger numbers this way.

I'd like to be able to count in binary on my hands. If you consider each finger a binary digit, which is up for a '1' and down for a '0', you can store the numbers 0-31 on each hand. If you use both hands together, to store a single number, the range of values is 0-1023.

I started trying to do this during family cook-outs, when it was my job to find out how many hamburgers and hot dogs everybody wanted. I have a large family, and when each one of them is saying things like "one hamburger, two hot dogs" then one must use pencil and paper...unless one is HARDCORE or a geek or something. I'd try to use one hand to count hamburgers, one hand to count hot dogs, and store the numbers in binary.

Generally I'd screw up the binary math somehow and get the numbers wrong, but in theory, practice should make one able to count in binary on one's fingers efficiently, without thinking about it. I'd love to be able to do that, but I'm not so sure I want that skill enough to practice it.

S "besides, representing the number '4' is rude" am