We are used to counting with our fingers. We have been doing this from we first learned to count. This is quite useful in many circumstances, but the number of fingers are quite limited - 10 fingers in total per person. What if you want to count beyond 10? Do you start using toes? Or another person's fingers?

I've heard that this number of fingers is actually the basis for the 10-digit number system we have been using for centuries. In our modern computer age we should really move to the much more capable binary system. When we count with our fingers, each finger is in one of two states: up or down. Down means the finger is not counted, and up means the finger is counted. If you extend the three first fingers it signifies the number three.

But what if we reconsider these states in a binary system, where down means binary zero, and up means binary one. Then we define that the right thumb is the least significant - being the rightmost finger when you turn your palm inwards. Now you can on one hand - 5 fingers = 5 bits - count all the way to 31! And if you add the other hand, the number doesn't just double, but the number of bits doubles. That means you now have 10 fingers = 10 bits, and you can count all to the way to 1023!

It takes just a little practice to recognize the pattern of fingers as the correct numbers. It's a bit unusual to see three fingers and then understand it as the number 7. But when you've used it a few times you learn most combinations by heart.

Now you can also put numbers to well known finger gestures. Like the the "giving the finger" gesture where the middle finger is extended can now be recognized as the number 4. Or the victory-V gesture with index and middle finger extended is the number 6. The common stop-gesture with all fingers extended is the number 31, and the satan-rock sign where the index and pinky fingers are extended is the gesture for the number 18. As a tip for satan-rockers, you should try another gesture: Left hand extends only thumb and middle finger, and right hand extends all but the thumb and middle finger. This is the gesture for the number 666!

This new counting gives a little different meaning to the term "No more than you can count on one hand". If you hear this you can politely ask if they mean about 5 or about 30.