Finger binary 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 (2−1) using the fingers of a single hand, or from 0 through 1023 (2−1) 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.
Counting toes). Older finger counting used the four fingers and the three bones in each finger (phalanges) to count to the number twelve. Other hand-gesture systems are also in use, for example the Chinese system by which one can count to 10 using only gestures of one hand. By using finger binary (base 2 counting), it is possible to keep a finger count up to . Various devices can also be used to facilitate counting, such as hand tally counters and abacuses. Inclusive counting is usually encountered when dealing with time in the Romance languages. In exclusive counting languages such as