It’s 4am. I can’t sleep. Too much stuff to think about. Here’s a quick sampling of the sort of thing that I think about at this time of day before I have to be up for work in four hours.
Lots of people say that we count in base 10 because we have 10 fingers. To which, I ask, If we can count from 0 to 10, then why do we need two digits to write down the highest number we can have with fingers?
A much more natural base for counting on your fingers is base 6. Here’s what I want you to try. Your right hand will serve as the ones digit, and your left hand serves as the tens. Start counting.
One is easy. Raise your right index finger. Two, raise the next one. Similarly through five. At six, it becomes slightly trickier, because six is now ‘ten’. Your left index finger goes up, and your right hand closes. Now again, counting from 11 to 15 is very simple. To go to 20, close your right hand and raise another finger.
In this manner, you can count up to 55 – which would be 35 in base 10 terms, far more than the paltry 10 you claim your ten fingers are for counting! Switching bases back and forth is a bit tedious, I’ll agree, but once you get used to it, it’s far more useful than a simple 10 fingers.
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