I Didn't Know!

[stoutfellow]

Many years ago, I was messing around with different ways of counting on my fingers. Taking "up" and "down" as bits, it's possible to count to 1023, but certain numbers - e.g., 4 - become, um, unacceptable. I tried working with base six for a while, which allows counting up to 35, but eventually settled on a modified base-five system - kind of a Roman numerals thing, with the fingers of one hand representing 1, the thumb of that hand 5, the fingers of the other hand 10, and the other thumb 50. This lets me count up to 99, which is useful. (If I need to get over 100, I enlist my big toes.)

I just now discovered that I had reinvented chisanbop (although without the press-your-fingers-on-the-table bit). I swear, I didn't know.