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zmjezhd #174529 03/11/08 10:54 PM
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old hand
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old hand
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Originally Posted By: zmjezhd

Many cultures move past counting on their fingers.


The Huli of Papua New Guinea highlands still use not only there fingers but parts of there arm, chest and head (eyes, nose, ears) they use a base 15 system.

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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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What's the evidence that the Sumerians and Babylonians used base 60 for ordinary counting?

Good question. Since Sumerian and Akkadian are no longer spoken, we only have written records to go by, and that already preselects what kind of counting was getting done. (I'll rummage through some of my reference books and see what's to be seen.) Not sure if anybody knows how the common counting folk did it. One might investigate the words for numbers and seeing if any clues could be had from them.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
cadenza #213272 11/18/13 04:22 PM
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M
stranger
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The words were spoken by Albert Alligator, a character in the comic strip "Pogo". Sometimes the reference was to the counting methods and numbers used by Congress to keep track of US funds. Things haven't changed in 50, 60, 70 years.

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