When Genius meets boredom.

I have worked out a great new counting system. I haven't heard of anyone else doing this before, so for the time being, I'm taking 100% credit. This system allows you to count all the way to 100 with only your ten fingers. every number has a different pattern of fingers and thumbs. It's easy to explain it like this...

your four fingers on the right hand count as ones digits...1 through 4. The Thumb on the right hand counts for 5. On the other hand, your left hand fingers count as 10...the left hand thumb as 50. It's kinda like limited roman numerals.

1=I=one right hand finger.
6=VI=one right hand finger, one right hand thumb.
9=IX=one right hand thumb, four right hand fingers.
10=X=one left hand finger.
28=XXVIII=two left hand fingers, one right hand thumb, and three right hand fingers.
79=LXXVIIII=one left hand thumb, two left hand fingers, one right hand thumb, and four right hand fingers.

Seeing the pattern yet?

Now, theoretically, one could calculate within a hundredth of a decimal place (or up to 9,999) by taking off their shoes and socks, but I can't bend my toes that well....:(

As you can understand, this system is highly adjustable- just assign other body parts a number to represent.

It has the same major flaw that caused the rejection of the Roman numeral system. It doesn't contain any 0s as placeholders etc.

It has the same major flaw that caused the rejection of the Roman numeral system. It doesn't contain any 0s as placeholders etc.

He has got a good point there, and anyway, would be a bit confusing for people not too good at maths. I picked it up alright, but maths is pretty much the only subject I am good at, if I was to show it to my brother he would take one look at it, and say "What the F*** is this?" Get my point?

Good thinking though.

you have alot of time on your hands but very interesting idea

whats the benefit of this?

You still count on your fingers?

I guess you at least managed to find a way to count to 100. :screwy:

Maybe if you assigned numbers to hair follicles you could count a lot higher :cwm27:

I'm only getting 99, it must be my hands...

you could count alot higher if you assigned each finger a binary value (1,2,4,8,16,32,64,128,256,512) you could count to 1023 with just your ten fingers. Not really original (i think they use something like this with computers, but I don't think they use fingers...), but effective.

This is like a modified ASL type of counting. Definately not VERY related, but it's the first thing I thought about. Interesting. Maybe I could write my doctoral thesis in Math on this system. ;) Too bad that won't be for about 10 or 15 years.... but keep this idea in your head until then, and when I'm going for my PhD, then you can help me. :D

I've seen people doing this before. Or something similar, I dunno it appeared to have no point so I took no interest.

You only go up to 99 though
Some guy in Taiwan already "invented" this and has like over 10,000 students worldwide...
:p too slow

my friend actually counts that way :rofl:

uh..huh? eh?

umm...guys...this IS useless...that's the point. I've got calculators...I don't need my fingers...but I got bored, very bored, and this was the end result. I didn't design it to revolutionize the world, I didn't create it to make my life easier, I did it for the same reason someone flushes firecrackers down a toilet. I WAS BORED! :'(

I did it for the same reason someone flushes firecrackers down a toilet.

Public toilets with metal bowls are the loudest, IMO. :p