How high can you count on your fingers? (Spoiler: much higher than 10) - James Tanton
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- Опубліковано 6 лип 2024
- View full lesson: ed.ted.com/lessons/how-high-c...
How high can you count on your fingers? It seems like a question with an obvious answer. After all, most of us have ten fingers -- or to be more precise, eight fingers and two thumbs. This gives us a total of ten digits on our two hands, which we use to count to ten. But is that really as high as we can go? James Tanton investigates.
Lesson by James Tanton, animation by TED-Ed.
In kindergarten I imagined my toes to help me count once I got past 10😂
Me too!
I literally took off my shoe
After watching Smash Direct 5, Sakurai showed me that you can count up to 31 on 1 hand
this also the way how the old people in maya counted. They had a 20 based system
Umm i figure out At 2 years old that i can do over 1000... And toes give 1000 More, so i can break world Record by counting my fingers. (1,000,000 is WR)
Even a handless guy can count the number of girls I have made out with
LolGuy well played
Ditto
LolGuy witty, very witty 😂
Zero
Fi Handley is
Teacher: what's 3⁴x11?
Me: shows middle fingers
Teacher: how DARE you!!!
Me: it's 891, you uncultured swine!
AHAHAHHAHAHA
@@aslesha8255 *yep.*
@Aarushi Patidar wait a second.
So all human inventions don't come from a UA-cam video???! 🤔🤔
How 😳😳😳😳
@Aarushi Patidar third world country sense of humor duhh
@@user-mz7cn9hq8v the human created math like 300-700 years ago
“How high can you count with your fingers?”
Me: laughs in ASL
I’ve been looking for these comments lol
It’s funny because 1000000 is easier than their way of saying 11 in the binary system
@@lootsgaming4428 actually 11 is 1011 so 1000000 is not easier than 11 in binary.
What's asl
@Erik's Life Tips *phrase
Math teacher: Stop doing signs with your hands!
Me: I am counting.
signs blood. Uh oh
Me: **counting with binary fingers**
The deaf guy wondering why I want to bring back the Soviet union: Hmmm
@@Mahfy3w lmao
@@Mahfy3w I literally want soviet union back.
@@Mahfy3w Fellow Cuber!
Yo man, you forgot to count all dem atoms in yo hand.
Alee Moua with quarks
Alee Moua
With planks
I gotta say maybe 45529043Trillion per hand
17253492873615287463571836298365187 octonigintillion in 2 hands
Alee Moua You forgot proper grammar.
Me: Counting to 59048.
My maths teacher: wondering why I'm trying to summon satan.
Yes
Dorime👽itze👽emoh👽rataparae👽dorime👽amumu👽ameno👽ratedae👽lateedae👽moe👽dorime👽ameno👽olmena👽depadari👽ameno👽dimedae👽
Copied
@@myweirdsecondchannelwithap2771 copied
@@ProfessionalBugLover copied
“Why are you giving me the finger?”
“I’m not. I’m counting to four.”
Nice one
Or 128 if you consider that hand the second hand
@@clemente3966 136 is godly imo
@@7cpm293 132 actually (128 + 4)
me when i reach 132 :
When you are just counting during your math class but get kicked out for throwing up gang signs😂😂
At the beginning they do the middle finger
0:09
@Anh Khoi Nguyen 👌
132 in binary
Figure it out
Flop Duarte 🤫 keep it a secret
"Yo dawg your throwin up gang signs?"
"Asking for a fight dawg?"
"No, im just counting to 59,048 with my fingers."
Haha nice one
Shrekrecker when typing or writing we think of how the word sounds when talking to write at least I do also the ' takes a change in state when on your phone and people either turn off auto correct or don't use it so that one little click when you type out your but mean you're goes unused most people know the difference though they just don't care enough to mess up their rhythm when typing also schools are meant to give kids the basics so they can decide what they enjoy funny thing is even if a kid is smart in math they will likely still end up doing heavy lifting for the first few years of their working life if they don't have money ... no matter your race or gender (sighs)
*don't
that would certainly be an interesting conversation...
@@shrekrecker well to be fair, someone that wants to throw hands over you seemingly doing gang signs probably doesn't know the difference.
Me: *counts 132*
Teacher: Get out of the class
yes 4 and 128
@@parulbhagat3176 Me: ; - ;
I guess you could half bend your thumb
Lollll
Lmao, i get it
My husband and I are both programmers. This video reminded me how we managed to use 5 birthday candles to celebrate the 30-year birthday. We used the same binary mode, 5 birthday candles but only ignite 4 of them which means 16+8+4+2=30.
Just use 30 candles and a flamethrower, way easier
how about a "3" and a "0" shape candles
@@leyun._.00 XD
I thought programmers aren't poor and can afford more than 5 candles 🤔
Thats... thats math.
Me: just counting
Some deaf man: scared of why I'm summoning a demon.
🤣😂 such a funny comment
🤣🤣🤣
Why would a deaf person have more knowledge about demons than a regular person would? A funnier comment would be “some deaf man: scared why I’m about to join the Soviet Union and start neo nazis” ur welcome
Wildmansam because of sign language and stuff
sxntqcks my brother is deaf and so is my mother. This isn’t sign language. And even if it was, it would just be sign language, not summoning demon language. Since when can a deaf person summon a demon?
3:04 That is a very Sad Pluto.
Rip Pluto ;(
Ok....so there is someone more interested in the scribbles more than the 'counting gone over my head'😍
dread true it’s his mom
@@HoeShiet 😂😂
he :(
Somebody: has a question
Ted Ed: *Write that down WRITE THAT DOWN!*
As an Indian I'm proud enough to say that we learn this even before starting the school life
the 59 thousand thing ? no we dont
Which thing? We learned binary counting, but not any higher than that.
The 132 thing?
Bro our school even had tests up to 1023 until some parent complained that their kid doesn't do anything else than practicing counting 💀💀💀💀💀💀
I was never taught the most of it
This is what I've been cracking my knuckles for
DJ Tile Turnip wait a second you broke the limit wait i can use my body wait no i can use atoms
1:54
All I want for Christmas is you
Music starts
I thought of that too🤣
Lol, yes! xD
I was thinking that too!😂
i do not get it...
@@tranmanhuc6235 r/wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo00000000000000000sh
That's so cool! I never thought of using the bones and joints on your fingers, or of using binary digits on your fingers, to count higher than 10. I'm going to practice that.
I know it's possible to count to at least 1023. It might be a difficult exercise, but it will get easier the more you practice.
Binary finger counting is possibly the best method. Arthur C Clarke taught me this in The Last Theorem. The main character taught children how to count over a thousand with their fingers by using binary.
The limitation with binary is the movement/control of the fingers. Let's say you wanted to show the digit "9" in binary, (raising your ring finger/thumb on your right hand). However, the tendons between the middle, ring and pinky finger are shared, severely limiting finger movement, hence it is difficult to raise the ring finger on its own.
@@kenweeraratne431 that's only for some people, the other parts of people can bent their pinky independently
@@infernocrusher7573 It's important for the numbering system to be universally applicable for all humans, excepting very rare deformations. Base 12 counting would be the best, with the creases method taught as an option in the case of very high numbers. 12 is also an ideal mathematical base, being divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 6. Size isn't everything.
One of the limitations would be representing 132.
One way to fix that difficulty is to invert the numbers. A finger up means “off”, while a finger down means “on”. I find it easier to curl the ring finer on its own instead of raising it on its own
Imagine showing 132 with your fingers using the binary system..... hint it's two middle fingers.
645
That’s now my favorite number
o well I've already got that down
heh I taught that to all my friends
D O U B L E D E U C E
_How high can you count on your fingers?_
People born with extra fingers: *"Allow us to introduce ourselves"*
Yeah, but most people with extra fingers have no muscles or nerve in them.
max is 16 (maybe)
@@elsieduhaylungsod8547 its like 54 thousand or something
@@7cpm293 With 6 fingers on both hands, it's 2^12 - 1 = 4095
teacher: count the number of fingers! Today we will learn to count to 10!
asian kid: *OBSERVE*
lol
This was one of the best animation of Ted, hope for more like it
Taught my children to count in binary on their fingers years ago I think this is the first thing that occurs to anyone who truly understands binary, the loved learning something complex in that simple way. Before I knew it they'd made sheets of paper with binary matrices on them to count into the thousands for no other reason than they could. I also challenged them to come up with number systems in base 3 and 4 given their understanding of base ten and 2 from the perspective of a three or four fingered alien.
Are your children math gods by now?
@@rexroyulada6267 I believe he was joking.
@@rexroyulada6267 I mean, the education system would hurt them so hard, I doubt it.
@@Carma281 True, unless they had proper teachers
This guy maths
Better yet: sign language
LOL
Thank you!
Moist Garlic Bread i can count past a million in ASL and it was a lot easier and simpler to learn than this
Lol
Even better: gang signs
In India, we are taught to count the tips of our fingers along with the creases on them. So on each finger we can count till 4, and on four fingers we can count till 16. We also count on our thumb till 4 (three creases and the tip) using the index finger. So on one hand we can count till 20 and on two hands till 40. This counting system is pretty popular throughout India.
Ya
now that's a lot of EFFICIENCY
Well, that's the same here in Bangladesh. Love to see this method being popular!
"The limit of how high you can count with your fingers is up to you, and your own flexibility and ingenuity."
Double Jointed people: *cool*
Just don't count to 132 using binary method while in public, lol.
You made me giggles XD
Danny Boy or count to 6, 384 or 390 if you're in the U.K.
Danny Boy I do that all the time, my favorite number is 4
Danny Boy mine is 645
James Alliott Life are peac signs offensive in the UK?
come on ! look at Pluto's face at 3:12 :(
Enrico Rossi it's sad because it's not considered a planet.
PurpleandPink2005 i know
Enrico Rossi
Is it weird that I feel bad for Pluto?
not anymore
Billy BoBBerson a dwarf planet is a planet. A tiny planet. That's my opinion, no one else is to reply
Now I can count the numbers of days I've spent in quarantine
I just randomly guessed the 3 "parts" on each finger😂 didn't know he was actually gonna say that
Same
the deaf kid in the room: how dare you!?!
l o l
Now, count all the atoms on your fingers
Ye Boi jokes on you i don't have any fingers
Small Skits How did you type your comment?🤔
Prem Yaragarla go ok Google type "your message"
Small Skits but how would u open google??
Aum Ganwani I subbed
My mom taught me to count using the 4 grooves on each finger of ours, so I can count till 20 in one hand lol
Who's here after Sakurai taught everyone how to count in binary?
Me
not me, i learned binary on my first phone
3:52 technology can be "handy"
YOUR DO FREAKING FUNNY
made my day lol
Wow.
I love you
Not funny but its smart ok
I think you shouldn't count if you're high
That was one of the most amazing things ive read.
Yeah, I tried to count my fingers and counted to infinity
Ricardo117 yeah thats what i thought when i read the titlek
It's either
1. You never searched for this (like me)
2. Sakurai made you search for this.
I searched this up and who is sakurai
@@GachaRobert36 smash bros director
@@KuletXCore thanks!
0:15
The "thumbs aren't fingers" thing is just annoying. Thumbs are fingers.
When I was younger I had a book on magic tricks and there was this one that had 4 (2 dimensional) dice with numbers written in the corners and on the face up to 16. The purpose of the trick was for you to ask a participant to think of a number between 1 and 16 and point to the dice that it appeared on. In the top corner of the 4 die were the numbers 1, 2, 4 and 8. The numbers that could be made from those numbers were on the die and all you had to do was add up the numbers n the top corner. It's a pretty simple trick, but it was impressive to 8-year-olds.
Anyway, so I became obsessed with this trick and it's method so I worked out how to do it for all the numbers as high as I could go (into the thousands, but I got bored). My plan was to make a new die and ask them to think of bigger numbers, this was a stupid plan as I soon realised because I would have to write all the numbers down and it would be hard to find them (I settled on only increasing up to 32).
This is such a coincidence but I actually used to use this finger method for remembering numbers, not for counting. So if say I needed to remember the number 344 (the width of my room, I was doing a floor plan okay) to write down, I would hold together the fingers representing 256, 64, 16 and 8 (for the record, the one started on my left thumb, because you read left to right). I got extremely good at working out which of the ten numbers add together to make what.
I understand this is such a lame anecdote but I'm lame and anecdotal and it's kind of relevant so I wanted to share.
Seems pretty interesting to me! When I was younger, I appeared in a Math Olympiad representing my state, and in a sum, I used my fingers to count, it being a difficult paper and open to only select people, the invigilators thought I was cheating or crazy or just in the wrong exam! (As most of the students who were there could add/subtract/divide/multiply crazy numbers together in their mind, yikes!)
I got a Silver medal but! Top 15 students!
Ellen Louise I think this is really cool! And I've seen and performed the same trick, but with pieces of paper instead of dice
No, that's a very helpful anecdote. I enjoyed the video, but couldn't think of a time I'd really use it. Your anecdote helped a lot in that regard. And now I want to look more into that magic trick...
Ellen Coonan You seem like a very intelligent person!
i need to do homework and im watching this wtf
Is it math?
You are not the only one
Dawg The Dog, mine is
Got my maths prelim tomorrow!
NewGenerationHipHop 11 months r over...did u complete ur homework till now??
I’ve actually been teaching myself to count on my hands using binary (think I started like 2.5 months ago), i have a lot of progress to go but I’m getting better still
I’m so glad I got this on recommended because it reminded me that I have homework to do (on a TED talk)
was this also just randomly in your recommended?
raspberry_picker39 yeah
raspberry_picker39 Yep
yaaaaaaayss
Yes
Yuppp
before watching the video, its 1023 most probably
yea, 2^10 -1
Gundalf almost but I'm impressed if you really knew thar
Bjorn Rambi What did you expect from a wizard
yep. now lets watch and see what they came up with
Yeah, sure!
*Laughs in Sakurai*
I learned the binary finger counting from a short story of Frederik Pohl. I found this in a quite enjoyable collection of his short stories in one of the free book counters around my home city Frankfurt am Main back then...
Now let's start counting our fingerprints
FALN 3Run Thats not that a lot.
Gregory Horseman ??? Yeah it is. Especially when u use powers of 2
ryan2698 - Minecraft Finger prints are lines that just swirl around themselves and a few other lines. There aren ‘t that many.
Gregory Horseman true but it's a lot more than 10 xD
And nails, and skin stripes, and spots, dots, broken places...
Title: more than 10
The barrier has been broken
Yes
And it’s now 59000
1,000
@@mohammednajl5950 actually 59048
@Wandering Waldinsian But no one could use that system on fingers. They would need 60 differentiable finger states!
I figured this out myself a few days before I got recommended this video. Damn.
I usually count in binary with just one hand. When using both the number of additions I have to do is a bit too cumbersome for me to work them out easily, and also the 32 combinations of one hand are easier to get familiar with.
at 3:05 I'm like wow they srsly put pluto in the corner
lol
soo sad :(
Lol i didn't even notice it😂
Be carful of 4 in binary. Your hand can be very rude.
Minecafé same with 128 and 132
even 136..
Minecafé the numbers 4 and 128-159 are very dangerous
I like it=513
Did you know this is actually an ancient Roman technique?!
1:54 literally the intro of all i want for christmas lol
And I once told myself I knew how to count...
Teach: stop doing Naruto signs
Me: I'm counting...
How dare you think I am doing Naruto signs. I am clearly doing Taoist hand mudras to count my numbers.
Me: counts with fingers
*Also me: accidentally summons Gamabunta*
I always knew about this method, and my parents used this method when they were young
Thank you Thank you Thank you for making this video, this was such a mind blowing video when I was younger, and it influenced me a lot.
Just count every atom then 😂
No U
Then it is 1937372946472962757353946 but if you want to add and photons and neutrons then that's 39361974937232777394716295718386484726829637
@@user-kh6bu7dg6d r/iamverysmart
Thats almost as much atoms than there are in the human body. Haha
@@user-kh6bu7dg6d oh and atoms dont have "photons"
How come, when you were using those finger parts, you didn't exercise the option of counting the finger NAILS as well?
Good question, haha.
TRUE. I didn't think of that. I was expecting them to use the the back of the hands. Then you could get up to 24 as opposed to just 12 on one hand
ZaLynn C Dangggg. That's pretty crazy, too.
+Trinitey Hayward ikr and i just had a thought. if you count the finger sections (front and back), creases, finger joints (including the knuckle), and the fingernail then that's 13 on one finger. That's up to 52 on one hand! The more I think about it the more it blows my mind lol
ZaLynn C Crazy! 53*53 bruh haha
Oh, so thats where Sakurai learnt this technique from
Super cool that a hidden clue for the mit mystery hunt was in this video! Its been a few years since then but i have been practicing.
What if I can’t count to 10?
Then go to school
Cipher Gamer I already go to school.
@@zuzu1678lol
guess ill die
Thuc Anh sounds fake
Someone:"How high are you?"
Me: "oh umm let me just count with my fingers, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 *some hours later* 59047 59048. There that is how high i can count."
Someone: *calling a therapist*
I dare you to represent 4392 in the ternary finger system.
Lol
I can count approx. 1.3819E6
yakashy7395 ok: down, down, up, down, down, down, down, up, down, down
You didn’t say I had to physically represent it😉
@@AnhThuNguyen-zz2hm me more than 1.07 billion
some random person living at some point in some: Whats your favorite number?
another random person living at some point in time: 4&128,You?
🤣
There is also angles of hand /wrist that can be used to count even higher
3:50 they stuck up the middle finger for a frame
which hand
multiple
OH HA HA SO FUNNY
How rude
Yes absolutely "hilarious"
1023 Is the highest for me (start of video)
End of video: Well yes but no
I'm proud that I guessed binary before watching
This was surprisingly cool. The stuff of TED-Ed
I thought through the entire process of this video independently and then looked it up to find someone else had done it too lol.
3:26 This man throwin' up gang signs like Tay-K
😂😂
Just memorize your multiplication table kids...
3:09 Pluto be crying after we kicked him out of the solar system
The Fifth Giant (Planet Nine) who was literally thrown out into interstellar space by a meanie called Jupiter thinks you’re overreacting and also you seem to have forgotten about Haumea, Makemake, and Eris.
The highest I figured out how to count to on my own as a kid was 60. Use one hand to count to 5, then use the other to count how many times you've counted to 5. When you got to a certain point (30), you flip your tracking hand over to reuse the digits.
In India we are taught to count 100 using finger sections as calculators are not allowed in the school level and that is the most obvious way for all the Indians.
supratim Ghosh Why aren’t calculators allowed?
@@KnakuanaRka because if you use calculators then your mental math skills starts to decay and soon you become dependent on calculators.That is what our education system want to avoid.
...well I wouldn't want to do statistics or calculus with just hands...
@@natchu96 but you have to in India .. even when I am writing this comment I am doing my differentiation and integration home work without calculators😂😂
@@sanjibghosh3373 that sounds like a rather useless skill...
Imagine someone trying to count 132...
youre fucking everywhere.
Mr Aquiles Yes. I am.
Taking the binary method from this video this is actually really easy you jus- ooooooh... I see what you did there.
Jacob Landon 🖕🖕
Jacob Landon wow... I see what you did there lol
Deaf guy in class thought: what is she doing
My teachers thought:is she Summoning a demon
Me: I'm just counting
Dude this video is entirely stop motion.
Mad respect
So you can count to four and flip someone off at the same time? LIFE HACK!
This is a pretty cool way of introducing kids to the concept of binary.
Until they tell you 132 off!
If you're a polydactyl, you can count up to 900 (30*30) by using sections and creases, as in 1:20
This is gonna make my calculus way easier now!Thannkkkkssss!
Paradox/irony: If your brain is powerful enough to keep track of counting using those advanced finger positions, you wouldn't need 'em to count anyway.
at least base 2 isnt that hard.
Vito C it's not about counting itself, it's about never losing track of your last number counted
Or you can just use a calculator..
To count? Really?
try to do maths without a calculator then you bimbos
Chang Jun Wei um ok, that isn't a problem. No need to get triggered.
Abel Judah Counting yea but not what he's doing, he's literally calculating
How about there's no calculator, you can't speak, and you need to say a number to a friend or the bomb will explode and destroy Krypton? No telepathy also.
i was in an abacus class when i was 7-8 years old, and they taught this abacus replacement with your hands. it goes up to 99 with hands and 999 if you use your head, arms and legs. still use it frequently until now for simple additions and substractions.
basically your fingers are 1-4 and the thumbs are 5s, so if you put all fingers and thumbs they make 9. you use your left hand the same way but they are the 10s, with both hands you get 99
you can also count really high based on not only the position, but the order in which you lift your fingers (factorials)
Putting my money on 1023 before I watch the video
...
Sam Seidel fake
Sam Seidel 59000
Well my fifth grade teacher taught me how to do binary on paper and fingers so I knew this.
+HaonJ - Motion Designer I always used binary finger counting, I always love to bring up the numbers 4, 128 and 132.
and you can rotate your hands to be horizontal, diagonal or vertical. And you can use your wrist too.. to lay your counted numbers on a specific roomly position in front of you
True, but the video says "on your fingers" in the title.
“Why’d you just do the middle finger at that waiter?”
“Oh, I was telling him in binary that I want number 4.”
Wow... I never knew our hands were so magical
*Sakurai has entered the chat*
Counting in binary with your fingers?
132 you
Idan Zamir 132 = 128 + 4
So 132 should be 10000100
Right, now do it with your fingers
Idan Zamir Easy, what's the big deal ?
You're giving the middle finger with both of your hands
Idan Zamir 645 is better.
A little surprised there was no mention of going by 16s after doing the 12s bit. Count your finger sections to 12, then lower each finger for an extra 4. Voila, 16 by 16, for the programmers favorite: 256 (technically 270 because you can go an extra set on your "ones" hand).
You could also use that to count in Hexadecimal, though I don't know what the practical use would be at the moment.
Whoever edited this video has the patience of a saint
You forgot that you can turn your hands to get even more
OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
OUTSMARTED TED-ED
I HAVE NO IDEA WHO TED IS
I used to count each knuckle on my left hand, putting up a finger on the other every time I got to 14, but using binary is just genius
@@Joshua-cs5rb lol I always used binary
@@HassanAhmed-rf9xr Then you’re a genius
@@Joshua-cs5rb not really I just found out. Your a genius now just like me.
how high can you get and still count on your fingers
Nordik haha
Nordik about 5.6 under the water so i can do a cold one with da boys
17 doses in an hour. More than that, counting's impossible.
I already knew this but thanks for explaining 😊