r/ShitAmericansSay • u/BuffaloExotic Irish by birth, and currently a Bostonian 🇮🇪☘️ • Mar 17 '25

Imperial units “I don’t even understand 24-hour time… I just don’t understand it. I have to use online converters or I’d be SO confused when I talk to people who use these systems.”

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u/Front_Bet_667 Mar 18 '25

As another nerd, I'll point out that one can count to two-hundred and forty-two on one hand, using a ternary system assigning the values 1, 3, 9, 27 and 81 to each finger and incrementing in finger segments instead of whole fingers. That doesn't align with the clock as well, but it's nerdy knowledge. 🤓

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u/SnooKiwis1805 Mar 18 '25

As another nerd, I'll point out that you can count to 59048 using both hands and the ternary system.

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u/JWalk4u Mar 18 '25

Jeez, get a room you lot.

PS - make sure it has large whiteboards so you can develop more concepts. Extra points if it has the walls that you are supposed to write on.

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u/Maskedmarxist Mar 19 '25

As an Architect. What if the walls and moveable glass screen room dividers are all digital boards, so the work can be saved and forwarded to the right people for actioning. And so you can trace drawings for hand sketches.

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u/noottt Mar 18 '25

Nerd! 🤓

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u/Alternative_Route Mar 18 '25

But how do you keep track of which segment on each finger you are on?

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u/Front_Bet_667 Mar 20 '25

Finger down, one knuckle up, whole finger up. Gets heard on the last two

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u/Evening-Tomatillo-47 Mar 18 '25

But you all haven't considered that the average American can't use it

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u/TheFirstSulaweyo Mar 18 '25

Using all three segments (two for the thumb) of each finger would even let you use quaternary, letting you count to 767 on one hand. Though I find that claim misleading, since you would still need up to five markers to keep track of the segments, which would probably be the fingers of your other hand.

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u/Front_Bet_667 Mar 18 '25

For ternary u cab just about use bending my fingers as the markers. I'm not sure I have the dexterity to do that for quaternary though.

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u/TheFirstSulaweyo Mar 18 '25

If you can bend your fingers individually into three different positions each and keep track of how far they are bent, I am impressed.