The Five Finger Curse

Photo by Júnior Ferreira on Unsplash

How Counting on Your Fingers Has Made Math Hard

There’s usually a cultural progression in number usage. The first step has limited utility in arithmetic but is easy to learn; the integers are one, two, three and many. The next obvious step is counting on your fingers to ten, and this is where sin enters the mathematical Garden of Eden. The temptation is obvious, with ten fingers the emerging mathematician always has the most…