Finger Binary: You know you want to

[whitey6993]

I was browsing around the net one day and came across a page that said I could count to 31 using only one hand. It's called finger binary, and it's pretty cool. Here is the wiki definition:

Finger binary is a system for counting and displaying binary numbers on the fingers and thumbs of one or more hands. It is possible to count from 0 to 31 (25−1) using the fingers of a single hand, or from 0 through 1023 (210−1) if both hands are used.

You use your fingers and construct binary numbers. The thumb represents 1, index finger = 2, and so on in binary form until you get to the pinky finger. Wikipedia has a comprehensive article here if you want to take a closer look. If you use both hands and both feet, you can count really high!

*A note of caution, when showing this particular skill to others, be careful of the numbers 4 and 128. If you read the article, you'll see why.

[WingedPanther]

Also, hope your fingers move independently fairly well, or you may have trouble with some numbers

[Xility]

Yeah I do have some problems with finger binary, because my fingers start to hurt.

But you might also want to be careful about the number 132

[whitey6993]

But you might also want to be careful about the number 132

Good point! Forgot about that one

[Bartimäus]

Really cool and interesting article !

[agnl666]

That's awesome. I'm going to show that to my CP teacher tomorrow

[lor]

This is how I used to decode binary when I was first introduced to it but it was constructed in a table rather than on your hands.

[whitey6993]

That's awesome. I'm going to show that to my CP teacher tomorrow

Ask him how high you could count using this method if you took off your shoes and socks and started counting both hands and both feet (if that's even anatomically correct).