Mathematics
Ancient Indians used the joints of their fingers to count, a practice still seen today. Each finger has 3 joints, and the thumb is used to count them. How many can you count on one hand? How does this relate to the ancient base-12 counting systems?
Whole Numbers
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Answer
On one hand, there are 4 fingers (excluding the thumb), and each finger has 3 joints.
So, total number of joints that can be counted using the thumb :
⇒ 4 × 3
⇒ 12.
This is exactly equal to the base of the duodecimal (base-12) counting system.
This is why ancient civilisations developed base-12 counting systems — it could be naturally tracked using one hand, where the thumb counts the 12 finger joints. Many remnants of base-12 are still seen today, such as 12 hours on a clock, 12 months in a year and 12 inches in a foot.
Hence, we can count up to 12 on one hand, which corresponds to the base-12 counting system.
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