Counting on your fingers in binary.

Luke Burrage

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I was chatting to some friends online and this skill came up. There are plenty of other videos on youtube showing the same kind of idea, but this one is mine!

Anyone else use this style of counting in every day life? I'm sure on a geek forum I'm not the only one.

Tasel

I knew how, but rarely actually count this way. Granted, if I could count in binary on my hand that quickly, I might make more use of it. However, I use it more either as a trivia thing (How high can you count to one hand?) or as a way to flip people off by saying "4". Geeks get it, and non geeks just are bemused and confused (which makes it incidentally more humorous for me).

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Wow, that's fast. Then again, what is to be expected, you have crazy hand skills Luke! I don't use that style of counting though. I don't count on my fingers anymore, but if I would, I probably would've adapted binary counting on my fingers too yes. Normal counting on your fingers only gets you so far. A peculiar thing I noticed is that you count starting with an open palm. Thus indeed making flipping someone off binary 267. For me it's binary 4.

or as a way to flip people off by saying "4". Geeks get it, and non geeks just are bemused and confused

Those geeks should correct you and state "It's binary 4, not decimal 4." If you use a decimal representation of the number, at least tell them in what numeral system you are talking. Or just say "One-Oh-Oh".

(EDIT: My brain being silly and forgetting your thumb was still representing a 0 when at 26.)

George Patches

This is a considerably more efficient way to count.

Bronzdragon

This is a considerably more efficient way to count.

Well, depends. it's true that you can get a lot further with counting this way, but it's faster (and easier for most people) to count 'normaly' because you have to move fewer fingers

lackofcheese

The solution: GRAY CODE!

Churba

Use the knuckle of each finger, and count the tip as well, folding a finder when you hit a full hand(19, in other words) and you're getting 95 per hand. Good for keeping track of larger counts, especially when you've got a terrible head for numbers.

Luke Burrage

Wow, that's fast. Then again, what is to be expected, you have crazy hand skills Luke!

Yeah, I learned this more because I'm a juggler than a computer geek. It's just what jugglers do, we find little physical tricks to learn, especially ones you can practice without actually having any equipment. Then we promptly forget the skill and move on to the next.

Not all jugglers do this, but there is definitely a large subset. Once I was sitting in a bar with ten or twelve other jugglers, and in another conversation someone mentioned Rubik's Cube. One juggler then said "Everyone, what are your best times with cubing?" So everyone reeled off their best time. Only one person at the table hadn't ever learned to solve one. It was a telling moment because the question wasn't "Who here has once gotten into cubing?" That was just assumed. And the questioner didn't even know half the people in the bar.

As I said, most skills are just forgotten, it is the learning that is the fun part. I kept using my left hand for counting and keeping track of numbers when making notes. One day I'll learn to write left handed so I can do it the other way too.

(EDIT: My brain being silly and forgetting your thumb was still representing a 0 when at 26.)

Yup, and I said the words "Twenty seven" when I showed it!

The solution:GRAY CODE!

I'll maybe put another video of another finger counting trick I do. It isn't this, but a different base 5 method. Except all my youtube followers want juggling videos, not maths.

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(EDIT: My brain being silly and forgetting your thumb was still representing a 0 when at 26.)

Yup, and I said the words "Twenty seven" when I showed it!

I know. I ignored your thumb, and I got tricked by myself into hearing "twenty-six" when you said "twenty-seven" when you were just firing of the few random numbers from behind.

chaosof99

Now we know why it's called fourk you

Ilmarinen

Did anyone else try this and realize that they have horrible finger flexibility and control?

Rym

Did anyone else try this and realize that they have horrible finger flexibility and control?

Nope. ^_^

Of course, playing the piano and trumpet, plus typing all day every day, has probably increased my dexterity to at least 16 or 17.

Luke Burrage

Of course, playing the piano and trumpet, plus typing all day every day, has probably increased my dexterity to at least 16 or 17.

I play the guitar, so that might be the reason I found this easier using my left hand compared to my right. I'm sure my typing skills have very little to do with it as I don't touch type. I've not played piano or keyboards for years. Trumpet I've not touched since playing it for a solo in a single song when I played guitar and keyboards in a rock band years ago. So yeah, I'm sticking with the guitar theory. What does dexterity go up to? 20?

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Did anyone else try this and realize that they have horrible finger flexibility and control?

I can count on my fingers in binary, slowly. I can't really bend my ring finger and pinky separately. When I bend my ring finger (or stretch it if I start with a fist), my pinky always wants to follow. Also, having all my fingers stretched out, and then only bending my index finger also causes discomfort. The bases of my fingers aren't that super flexible in relation to their neighbours compared to the rest of them fingers.

What does dexterity go up to? 20?

My bet is Rym did indeed use the D&D; scale, all stats go to 20 on that iirc. 20 being godlike.