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TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

The whole concept of even having a middle finger is a bit arbitrary. When you put your hands on a table, all 10 fingers spread out, the gap between the hands is the exact middle. If you include all 10 fingers, there is no middle finger, but there is a middle gap.

Andy why do we even count the fleshy fingers, when we could be counting the gaps between them? It’s the number of gaps that really matters when you’re holding on to a bunch of things like papers, magazines, forks, sticks, stones, strings, cables or whatever.

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Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

Andy why do we even count the fleshy fingers, when we could be counting the gaps between them?

Each finger is conveniently split into 3 parts. Using 8 fingers we can count to 24 without resorting to any fancy math.

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- roguetrick@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Actually can count to 144 or a gross if you use base 12. One hand for the ones place and the other hand for the dozens.
  
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  - Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I’ve always wonder if it was worth the effort of learning base 12 mental arithmetic.
    
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    roguetrick@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Depends if you’re a farmer or merchant without access to electronics.
    
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- TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  That’s the point most westerners seem to miss. There are so many ways to use fingers to count, while the one common in Europe the simplest one possible. It’s like demo version, while some other countries get the full pro ultra max edition.
  
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  - Zagorath@aussie.zone ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    
    There are so many ways to use fingers to count, while the one common in Europe the simplest one possible
    
    But this isn’t about counting on fingers. It’s about counting fingers. As in, the fingers themselves are what’s being counted when you talk about your “middle finger”.
    
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    TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Fair enough. This was an unnecessary side tangent.
    
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- spooky2092@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Just go base 2 and you can count to 31 without using knuckles
  
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  - Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    True, although I would put binary in the “fancy math” category.
    
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    Cethin@lemmy.zip ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I wouldn’t. It’s easy, people just haven’t learned it. It takes probably all of a minute to teach someone to count in binary with their fingers.
    
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Zagorath@aussie.zone ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Sure, but we don’t say you have one middle finger, we talk about the two middle fingers. As in, one per hand. It’s not the middle of all your fingers, it’s the middle of the fingers on that hand.

We don’t count the gabs because that’s…not how counting things works. When delivering a bag of apples, you don’t count how many gaps between apples there are, you count the number of apples. You have to know that your second paragraph here is a stretch that would make a Republican lawmaker seem sensible, don’t you?

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- Prathas@lemmy.zip ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  make a Republican lawmaker seem sensible
  
  Whoa now, hold your horses…
  
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  - Zagorath@aussie.zone ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Not a comparison I use lightly, I assure you.
    
    Maybe that one politician a while back who wanted to redefine pi to equal 4 would be on this level.
    
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    Droechai@lemm.ee ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Why leave Pi to mathematicians rather than democratically-ish elected leaders? Pi is far to important to be left outside of democracys sphere of influence
    
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BussyCat@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
You take one hand and count with the thumb as 1 and the pinky as 5 and the middle number is 3. If you switch and start with the pinky as 1 and the thumb as 5 the middle finger is still the middle number. Talking about the gaps can be useful but anatomically we name things for what’s there and what’s not there and we talk about fingers much more than we talk about the gaps

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