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You can count past 1,000 on your fingers by using binary, instead of just 10
(www.mathsisfun.com)
this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2026
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As long as we are going that far, maybe we should stick to a system that if already in use
Cool! I imagine ASL goes higher than 20? Because if it didn't, the system I learned wins since it can go 0-100.
I think the one I learned is easier to learn/memorise, too.
But since we're talking about counting/doing math on your fingers, I'm not sure which is easier. That said, the one I learned was from a YouTube video about mental calculations. They said that was how they counted really fast. Still subjective, though.
ASL can count as high as you need to, it gets kind of tedious after about a 999, because of all the place markers that need to be added in (like manual counting, or spelling out a number on a check), but one can sign up to 999 with a single hand. for numbers up to 99, it's more or less using the chart above. For everything after that you mark the hundreds place with the letter C and then go on the rest of the number (476, would be signed 4 C 76). Beyond that, it's just a matter of adding on the place value signs for "THOUSAND", "MILLION", etc. (which are two handed signs) so, 456,789 would be signed as 4 C THOUSAND 56 7 C 89.
The exception to this would be strings of numbers, like phone or room numbers, where you sign them much like how they'd be spoken. So when directing someone to room 235, you'd just sign 2 35 (the concept of hundreds isn't really important here, because in most cases, the leading 2 just means the room is on the second floor).
Edit: ASL is very visual so here's a link (with the caveat that there's variations in signs between signers/ regions, so online stuff may be different than what folks in your area are using)
So growing up I was taught ASL. And I can tell you, knowing how to count high on a single hand REALLY helped in my lower grades for math. I used to see kids put down their pencil to keep counting, and I'd be counting on my fingers with one hand. Very practical.
And when you get older, if you and your friends know ASL, you can sign across rooms (like noisy bars). Just throwing that out there.