[HN Gopher] Do you still count on your fingers?
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Do you still count on your fingers?
Author : Hooke
Score : 22 points
Date : 2024-06-16 05:17 UTC (17 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (thonyc.wordpress.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (thonyc.wordpress.com)
| wryoak wrote:
| I have to count on my fingers to calculate time and dates. Dunno
| why, but I can't get it right otherwise
| Tijdreiziger wrote:
| Off-by-one errors?
| salesynerd wrote:
| I still count days in months using my fingers. :)
| finger wrote:
| I still use the knuckles method I learned as a kid.
| timonoko wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knuckle_mnemonic
| adzm wrote:
| I still use this all the time
| marcosdumay wrote:
| When my hands are occupied, I visualize the knuckles and count
| them. It's still easier than remembering the calendar.
| ggm wrote:
| Yes. And, I count in binary to stop myself speaking in bullshit
| meetings.
| mikemitchelldev wrote:
| It's a useful communication gesture if the topic of conversation
| calls for it.
| lagrange77 wrote:
| I even sing the 'abcdefg' song to infer letter sort order.
| arp242 wrote:
| I generally lose track somewhere after P.
| 082349872349872 wrote:
| I generally lose track somewhere after "cookie monster":
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYIRO97dhII
| happytoexplain wrote:
| I do this too. I can also start at L if my intuition tells me
| the letter(s) I'm testing come after L. But that's it - I have
| to start at L or A. I don't know why L and not some other
| letter.
| retrac wrote:
| The reason for L is probably because of the rhythm of the
| usual way the song goes. l, m, n... are rushed together
| because "elemenopee" is easy and fun to say quickly.
| ... a b c d e f g h / i j / k
| l m n o p q / r / s t / u / v w / x
| y and z
|
| I don't even need the song for the first couple lines these
| days!
| eastbound wrote:
| Probably also for memorization. If the song were linear,
| letters would all cuddle together in the little children's
| mind.
|
| It's quite funny that, as a French native, we are all
| taught exactly the same song! Same pace, same tone, same
| elemenopy, but later in life, somehow y'all just smash
| tough/thorough/through/trough letters together, and we go
| on with our hon/hen/heim.
| eks391 wrote:
| I've been able to start at A, E, L, or T, and your
| explanation makes sense.
|
| I usually know a letter is near one of those four, but not
| if it is before or after, so if I am looking for P for
| example, I'll start with T for a bit, realize I've gone too
| far, and start over at L in hopes of finding it.
| jay_kyburz wrote:
| I'm convinced my kids thought lmno was a single letter for a
| while.
| simonbarker87 wrote:
| I still do this as well, I distinctly remember a time in my
| life where that song didn't make sense to me though for a weird
| reason.
|
| The l,m,n,o,p part is often sung very quickly so to my 5(?)
| year old brain I never understood where this "elemenopy"
| business came in and what it had to do with the alphabet. One
| day it clicked but for a while there I was just along for the
| ride!
| lagrange77 wrote:
| I can relate to this kind of confusion. When your brain
| expects useful information encoded in a detail, BUTT the
| author just did it for some trivial reason.
| adonese wrote:
| I have had this same encounter (in Arabic though). And I
| still vividly remember when it all made sense (that would be
| 24 years ago)
| SapporoChris wrote:
| It is delightful to be in a foreign country where English is
| not primary language but is taught and hear/see a little child
| rattling off the 'abcedefg' song.
| vundercind wrote:
| I don't count on my fingers, but that, I do. I can think
| through to some subset of the order to find a target letter but
| it's usually faster to just run through the song quickly in my
| head, from the beginning, so that's what I do.
|
| I mean, it's like 4s worst-case to find the letter anyway. I
| can "sing" it in my head fast. Not something I really need to
| work on making faster.
| rosmax_1337 wrote:
| They can be a miniature sort-of-abacus. Keeping track of a number
| while you're scanning a lot of other things that occupy your
| mind. You can even sort of hold both the 101 digit and the 100
| digit on your hands if you're used to it, by semi-extending
| fingers or other methods, counting up to 100 and "physically"
| keeping the number in "memory".
|
| Most of the time it's not necessary but if I'm particularly tired
| I use it sometimes.
| Sakos wrote:
| This is pretty much it. I'll use my fingers if I don't want to
| keep a number in working memory.
| dylan604 wrote:
| The mini-abacus is how I use them as well. I was in a math
| competition where you were not allowed to use any scratch paper
| or make any stray marks on the test nor could you attempt to
| correct your mistakes with an eraser or trying to turn a 7 into
| a 9 or similar. There was nothing against counting on fingers,
| so there are time where I still calculate with my finger tips
| sshine wrote:
| I count difference between small numbers and enums on my fingers.
|
| This includes e.g. - the distance between months
| - the distance between wall clocks
|
| It's simpler for me to say "The number of months between March
| and September is... April, May, June, July, August, September,
| six." than "The number of months between March, 3, and September,
| 9, is 9-3 = 6," because I don't cache the numeric value of the
| months. Maybe I would if I were a Chinese speaker, where
| September's name is Jiu Yue jiu yue = nine month.
|
| For wall clocks that wrap around midnight, it's simpler to count
| because it removes dealing with negative numbers.
|
| I count the number of days in a month on my knuckles.
| acadapter wrote:
| The months after July are named after numbers, but the names
| are from the old calendar when the year started in March.
| lupire wrote:
| The months after August are named after numbers.
|
| July and August form the Caesarian section.
| eastbound wrote:
| /!\ Months are intervals and suffer from the off-by-one
| problem.
|
| If you count from the 15th to the 15th, fine.
|
| But if you start on March 1st, finishing in September means 7
| months, not 9-3=6. That's when my fingers help me visualize
| full months.
| sshine wrote:
| Yeah, I think that might well be why I stick to finger
| counting, so I don't accidentally count the offset as the
| first step.
| thedufer wrote:
| September is a funny choice to use as an example, because it
| _is_ named after a number (sept-: prefix, 7). The wrong number,
| though.
| dylan604 wrote:
| So remembering this little tid bit would do more harm than
| good
| swader999 wrote:
| This is because September used to be the seventh month. March
| was the new year and coinsided with spring planting, the
| spring equinox. At some point we switched from a solar
| calendar to a lunar one and that's when the new year month
| changed. Source for all this is the dead sea scrolls, see the
| book "Ancient Mysteries of the Essenes" for a deep dive on
| our calendar.
| eddd-ddde wrote:
| Sept, Oct, Nov, Dec. My favourite months, wish they still
| where 7-10.
| asveikau wrote:
| I thought the reason is because they added two months named
| July and August after emperors, which offset all the
| numbers by 2. (Sept, Oct, Nov, Dec - 7, 8, 9, 10)
| stavros wrote:
| Same with Quartember, Quintober, Sextober, October, November,
| and December.
| spike021 wrote:
| Occasionally for routine small counting.
|
| What I did find interesting is that I've used it more for
| Japanese especially when I'm in Japan. I've been very slowly
| learning Japanese and of course counting in Japanese. So if I'm
| ordering food someplace I try to either count (yen) change or
| figure out the amount of an item I'm ordering.
| mock-possum wrote:
| I've noticed I count syllables on my fingers when writing in
| meter.
| ForOldHack wrote:
| Yes, in binary. Addition and multiplication.
| CoastalCoder wrote:
| This reminds me of something from the early Internet.
|
| There was a video (Flash?) of someone counting in binary on one
| hand, with acapella background music that sounded (to my
| untrained ear) like maybe some Nordic folk song.
|
| If anyone has a link, I'd love to see it again.
| chinathrow wrote:
| No, I count with my toes on both sides: 1 is all left toes and 2
| is all right toes, 3 left again and so on. With a small break
| after each even number. I guess one could call it a tic.
| seydor wrote:
| The sexagesimal system used by the ancient babylonians and
| sumerians is believed to involve counting using the finger bones
| of our hand
| analog31 wrote:
| Yes, counting rests (sections where I'm not playing) when playing
| in the band. That way, my fingers keep going even if I'm
| distracted by other things.
|
| I suppose you could say I'm counting time, rather than things.
| rolph wrote:
| anybody remember this being pushed, K-TEL record style?
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chisenbop [circa.US 1977]
| kvakerok wrote:
| Once you visualise a calculator in your head there's no need to
| count on fingers. But I've recently learned that there are people
| incapable of visualizing anything at all, so there's that.
| keybored wrote:
| I often count by a rhythm feel for smaller numbers. Maybe
| subdivide into rhythms of four and then count each of them
| manually.
| paulpauper wrote:
| chunking
| tiffanyh wrote:
| Sumerians counted to 12 on one-hand.
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexagesimal
| matrix87 wrote:
| well technically you can count to 31 on one hand
| torcete wrote:
| I remember when I moved to the U.K. and asked at my new workplace
| for some memory sticks. - How many do you need? - Two. And I
| raised two fingers accordingly. - Here, in the UK, you don't do
| that with your fingers.
|
| That day I learnt something new about cultural differences.
| radicalbyte wrote:
| Yes you do, you just do it palm facing the person you're
| talking to (known locally as the "victory sign").
| inopinatus wrote:
| "V for Victory" isn't just a hand gesture, it was a WW2 meme
| of defiance. Curiously, Churchill used both hand
| orientations.
| maleldil wrote:
| Who the hell signals two with your palm facing you? That's the
| only way you can get in trouble.
| sam_goody wrote:
| What's the highest number you can count on your fingers?
|
| When I need to do something repeatedly for a large number of
| times, I use my thumb to count the joints of my fingers, where
| the right hand is the "ones" and the left hand the "tens" column.
| In practice, I only go up to a hundred (ie. I use the first three
| fingers on each hand while counting - three on each finger, for
| 1-9), because decimal. But, the same system could get to 12x12 or
| 13x13.
|
| A really neat alternative is to count on your fingers using
| binary. The right thumb is 0, the pointer 2, the middle finger 4,
| the ring finger 8, etc.
|
| Amazingly, this gets you to over 1000 on your two hands, which is
| a really neat trick in the right setting. (Casually counting
| aloud off you fingers is great way to break the ice when you use
| binary - it is familiar but unexpected, dumb but smart.)
| DatDay wrote:
| I get embarrassed counting on my fingers during exams. I can't
| seem to kick this habit.
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