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Finger-counting systems in use in many regions of Asia allow for counting to 12 by using a single hand. The thumb acts as a pointer touching the three finger bones of each finger in turn, starting with the outermost bone of the little finger. One hand is used to count numbers up to 12. The other hand is used to display the number of completed ...
Representing negative numbers is extremely simple, by using the leftmost finger as a sign bit: raised means the number is negative, in a sign-magnitude system. Anywhere between −511 and +511 can be represented this way, using two hands. Note that, in this system, both a positive and a negative zero may be represented.
Therefore each hand can represent the digits 0-9, rather than the usual 0-5. The two hands combine to represent two digits; the right hand is the ones place, and the left hand is the tens place. This way, any number from 0 to 99 can be shown, and it's possible to count up to 99 instead of just 10.
The ordinal numbers of the fingers of the human hand are numbered ambiguously in the English language. This is due to two competing finger numbering systems that can be used. For instance, the first finger might refer to either the thumb or the index finger, depending on the context.
Number systems have progressed from the use of fingers and tally marks, perhaps more than 40,000 years ago, to the use of sets of glyphs able to represent any conceivable number efficiently. The earliest known unambiguous notations for numbers emerged in Mesopotamia about 5000 or 6000 years ago.
The crossed fingers represent this kanji resembling an "X". [14] A clenched fist. Chinese number gestures are a method of using one hand to signify the natural numbers one through ten. Clenched fist is used as a gesture of defiance or solidarity. Facing the signer, it threatens physical violence (i.e., "a thumping").
a common sign for the number one. Chinese number gestures are a method to signify the natural numbers one through ten using one hand. This method may have been developed to bridge the many varieties of Chinese—for example, the numbers 4 (Chinese: 四; pinyin: sì) and 10 (Chinese: 十; pinyin: shí) are hard to distinguish in some dialects.
One such system is the body-part counting system which make use of further body parts to extend the system beyond the ten fingers. [1] Counting typically begins by touching (and usually bending) the fingers of one hand, moves up the arm to the shoulders and neck, and in some systems, to other parts of the upper body or the head.