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You can count past 1,000 on your fingers by using binary, instead of just 10 (www.mathsisfun.com)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/lifeprotips@lemmy.world
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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.

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[–] 4 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I taught my kids to count in binary on their fingers before I taught them base 10.

Having that skill also makes base conversion relatively simple because base 10 is intrinsically understood to be a way of expressing quantity instead of the literal truth about that quantity.

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