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Comment by jamornh | Hacker News Reader

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jamornh

I find the finger counting (3 with thumb, index, and middle finger) interesting. Here in Asia that could mean 8.

I was first taught to count starting from the index finger as well:

fist = 0

index = 1

index, middle = 2

index, middle, ring = 3

index, middle, ring, pinky = 4

index, middle, ring, pinky, thumb = 5

thumb = 6

thumb, index = 7

thumb, index, middle = 8

thumb, index, middle, ring = 9

(I am from Thailand, but I think this is how counting is taught in America as well?)

I thought this was universal until I went to Singapore. I was quite intrigued that in Singapore a "thumb" is not considered a number but rather a signal for "good" and instead they used thumb + pinky for 6. (The rest seems to be the same.)

Not sure why I brought that up, but I guess I had not realized that there was a difference in even the way we counted all around the world until that point.

EDIT: Formatting

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Typically, kids in the USA are taught 1 - 5 the way you describe, but not taught anything further with a single hand. If they want to count to ten, they use both hands in the same manner.

There are a few other fancy ways including even binary which could let you count up to 1024 if you could keep it all in your head. :)

The ASL (American Sign Language) method I mentioned in the parent is described here: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/counting-on-numbers-in...

I annoyed my teachers in elementary school demonstrating binary finger counting to 1024 when they were insisting that students stop finger counting because "you could only count to 10"

I was a precocious little shit.

Yeah, my dad taught me to count on my hands in binary when I was young. I tried explaining it to others but that usually broke down when I reached four...

It sounds like (unsurprisingly) Singapore uses the same system used here in Hong Kong. I'm not sure if the same system is used in mainland China.

fist = 0 index = 1 index, middle = 2 index, middle, ring = 3 index, middle, ring, pinky = 4 index, middle, ring, pinky, thumb splayed = 5 thumb, pinky = 6 index, middle, ring, pinky, thumb all held strait with their pads touching, looking a bit like a shadow puppet of a bird's head = 7 thumb, index = 8 just the index finger, bent in half = 9

Yes, the same system is used in mainland China.

Apart from 4 and 5, you can kind of see the link between the written form of the number and the hand signal: 1, 2, 3: obvious because 一二三 6: the thumb and pinky make up the bottom part of the character 六 7: If you look at your own right hand upside-down when making the gesture, the bird's head points in the same direction as the 七 8: Your thumb and index finger are the two lines in 八 9: Your index finger is the second stroke in 九

I don't know whether this is coincidental, or even just my imagination...

My hand cannot do 9 the way you describe. My pinky is too stubborn.

I taught my daughter starting with fist, so zero was natural.

Then, when we started playing board games there was an issue playing games like "Game of Goose" because she started counting with 1 in the occupied space. We "fixed" that starting with 0.

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