While finger counting is already automatic, you can optimize it, save time, and most importantly, don't get lost on high bills. The technique consists of counting in a similar way to that of the Sumerians, which we will teach here.

The only reason we use a decimal system today (what mathematicians call "base 10") is that we have 10 fingers in our hands. However, by looking a little further, you may find that the Sumerians used another system, the "base 60".

Relearning to count!

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Finger counting is done differently: on the left hand, you stop counting each finger as a unit and pass it to the segments of each finger. That is: each finger is now worth three. For this you will only use four fingers and have your thumb as a way of indicating the counting process by touching each part of the finger that is counted.

When you finish a hand, lower one of the fingers of your right hand. This makes each right-hand finger count to 12. That is, when all the fingers on your right hand are down, your count will have reached 60 (5 x 12 = 60).

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However, if you want to go further, you can still get to 144. You only need to count each segment of your right hand fingers separately (12 x 12 = 144). To this day, we still find several references to the Sumerian counting model, such as the time counting, which is done at 60 seconds, 60 minutes and 12 hours in each period of the day.