Finger-Counting: More Than Just "This Little Piggy..."

On Sat, 27 Apr 2002 15:24:38 -0500 Peter Clark <peter-clark@...>
writes:
> On Saturday 27 April 2002 09:12, Christian Thalmann wrote:
> > (thumb|fingers), (.) = curled down (as in a fist), (O) = stretched
> > 0 = (.|....)
> > 1 = (.|O...)
> > 2 = (O|O...)
> > 3 = (O|OO..)
> > 4 = (.|OOOO)
> > 5 = (O|OOOO)
> > 6 = (O|O..O)
> > 7 = (O|...O)
>         Very neat! At one point I was working on a similar system,
> although I used
> two hands; I found that by using the thumbs as "eights" indicators,
> I could count up to 24. To borrow your notation:
> 1 = ....|. .|O...
> 8 = OOOO|. .|OOOO
> 11 = ....|. O|O...
> 18 = OOOO|. O.|OOOO
> 21 = ....|O O|O...
> 28 = OOOO|O O|OOOO
-

Rokbeigalmki's numeral system is based on finger-binary, in which you can
count up to 31 on one hand, and 1023 using both hands at the same time:

0 = .|.... ....|.
1 = .|.... ....|O
2 = .|.... ...O|.
3 = .|.... ...O|O
4 = .|.... ..O.|.
5 = .|.... ..O.|O
10 = .|.... .O.O|.
31 = .|.... OOOO|O
32 = .|...O ....|.
132 = .|.O.. ..O.|.
613 = O|..OO ..O.|O
1023 = O|OOOO OOOO|O

Just think of it as a binary notation where |O| (extended) = 1, and |.|
(curled) = 0.
The finger positions, going from right thumb to left thumb, are:
Right hand:
1
2
4
8
16
Left hand:
32
64
128
256
512

Just be careful not to use the numbers "4", "128", or (God forbid!) "132"
around people who don't know what you're doing... ;-)

The actual decimal Rokbeigalmki numerals based on this look something
like:
0. O
1. |
2. b
3. U
4. F flipped over a horizontal axis
5. U with a crossbar
6. F rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise
7. W
8. d
9. U with two crossbars


-Stephen (Steg)
 "but God says i'm 21!"
     ~ what not to say to a bartender when your birthday in the calendric
system of your religious tradition falls out about 20 days before your
birthday on the civil calendar of the country you live in, where the
drinking age is 21.

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