2002-01-05 09:53:46, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Joseph B. Reid) wrote: >Adrian Jadic wrote in USMA 17202:
>The dozen was used in the market place because of its factorability. >Arithmetic was usually developed base 10 because that is number of fingers >and thumbs that we have; Actually, even if you have to count on your fingers, you are not limited to base ten. Here are some alternatives: * Count on fingers+toes (base 20) * Count finger segments on one hand with the thumb of the same hand (base 12) * Let each left hand finger represent 6 and each right hand finger represent 1. Using this method, you can count up to 35 on your fingers. * Let your fingers represent a binary place value system, as shown below. You can count up to 1023 on your fingers. pinky ring middle index thumb thumb index middle ring pinky 512 256 128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1 I do not recommend this, because onlookers will tend to misinterpret the number 4.
