From rlpowell@digitalkingdom.org Tue Jun 19 13:24:53 2001 Return-Path: X-Sender: rlpowell@digitalkingdom.org X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-7_1_3); 19 Jun 2001 20:24:53 -0000 Received: (qmail 54837 invoked from network); 19 Jun 2001 20:24:52 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.26) by l10.egroups.com with QMQP; 19 Jun 2001 20:24:52 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO chain.digitalkingdom.org) (64.169.75.101) by mta1 with SMTP; 19 Jun 2001 20:24:52 -0000 Received: from rlpowell by chain.digitalkingdom.org with local (Exim 3.22 #1 (Debian)) id 15CS3P-0003Aq-00 for ; Tue, 19 Jun 2001 13:24:51 -0700 Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2001 13:24:51 -0700 To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [lojban] Re: hexadecimal and lojban Message-ID: <20010619132451.K17399@digitalkingdom.org> Mail-Followup-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com References: <5.1.0.14.0.20010618222433.00b02388@postoffice.pacbell.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <5.1.0.14.0.20010618222433.00b02388@postoffice.pacbell.net> User-Agent: Mutt/1.3.18i From: Robin Lee Powell 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/