Re: [lojban] Re: hexadecimal and lojban

[Robin Lee Powell <rlpowell@digitalkingdom.org>]

On Mon, Jun 18, 2001 at 10:35:31PM -0700, Edward Cherlin wrote:
> You can't claim an advantage for one base over another on the basis of 
> finger counting. You can count up to 1023 on two hands in binary (or if you 
> are really good, in Gray code, where successive numbers differ by one bit). 
> Taking four fingers as 1 each and the thumb as 5, you can do two-column 
> decimal abacus calculations on your hands, a practice which has been taught 
> in schools. Octal actually occurs naturally somewhere in the world where 
> they count on fingers but not thumbs. Duodecimal is described above. The 
> same dodge using the joints and fingertips rather than the phalanxes gives 
> you hex. If you take off your shoes and socks you can do base 20. Counting 
> on the phalanxes of one hand and the fingers of the other gives you base 60.

There's a tribe that counts to ten using fingers, thumb, wrist, forearm,
elbow, upper arm, shoulder.

-Robin

-- 
http://www.digitalkingdom.org/~rlpowell/ 	BTW, I'm male, honest.
le datni cu djica le nu zifre .iku'i .oi le so'e datni cu to'e te pilno
je xlali -- RLP 				http://www.lojban.org/