'Doug Elrod' via World News Now Discussion List writes: > Thirty-One is one of those "Interesting Odometer" numbers, "11111", > if you have a binary odometer ;-) > > It's the last number you can represent on one hand, by extending > fingers to represent ones, using the thumb for the high order bit. > Others may think you're saying "five", but the WNN cognoscenti will > know you can only mean *31*!
It's only the number of bits, not the ordering, that affects the largest number that can be represented by that many bits. Use your pinkie for the most significant bit if you want. Or your middle finger. "I got your most significant bit right here!" -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "World News Now Discussion List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to wnndl+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/wnndl/25526.2420.730737.540095%40hexadecimal.uoregon.edu.
