Finger binary
Finger binary is a system for counting and displaying binary numbers on the fingers of one or more hands. It is possible to count from 0 to 31 (25−1) using the fingers of a single hand, or from 0 through 1023 (210−1) if both hands are used.
In the binary number system, each numerical digit has two possible states (0 or 1) and each successive digit represents an increasing power of two. Note: What follows is but one of several possible schemes for assigning the values 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, etc. to fingers, not necessarily the best. (see below the illustrations.): The rightmost digit represents two to the zeroth power (i.e., it is the "ones digit"); the digit to its left represents two to the first power (the "twos digit"); the next digit to the left represents two to the second power (the "fours digit"); and so on. (The decimal number system is essentially the same, only that powers of ten are used: "ones digit", "tens digit" "hundreds digit", etc.)
It is possible to use anatomical digits to represent numerical digits by using a raised finger to represent a binary digit in the "1" state and a lowered finger to represent it in the "0" state. Each successive finger represents a higher power of two.
With palms oriented toward the counter's face, the values for when only the right hand is used are:
When only the left hand is used:
When both hands are used:
And, alternately, with the palms oriented away from the counter:
The values of each raised finger are added together to arrive at a total number. In the one-handed version, all fingers raised is thus 31 (16 + 8 + 4 + 2 + 1), and all fingers lowered (a fist) is 0. In the two-handed system, all fingers raised is 1,023 (512 + 256 + 128 + 64 + 32 + 16 + 8 + 4 + 2 + 1) and two fists (no fingers raised) represents 0.
It is also possible to have each hand represent an independent number between 0 and 31; this can be used to represent various types of paired numbers, such as month and day, X-Y coordinates, or sports scores (such as for table tennis or baseball).
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