Elegant dentistry and number systems

[radiantfracture]

I'm very pleased by the work the dentist did on the cracked filling, which wobbled alarmingly in my mouth all through December. She's created a sculptural surface with two smooth planes, very pleasant to run the tongue across.

The fix itself was faster than I expected. Then she spent a long time refining her work, for which I am grateful -- now.

During the more arduous passages I was comforted by having recently discovered the details of the Sumerian sexagesimal number system (base 60). I knew about the twelves but not the sixties.

Base 60 sounds huge, insurmountable, but what I learnt was the small essential detail that you count it using the phalanges of your fingers.

(I can't do the long/short months count across my knuckles because I'm short a knuckle, but I have access to a full set of phalanges.)

I don't know how the Sumerians did the counting, but I found you can run your thumb rapidly up the inside of each finger, marking by pressure three on each finger, twelve on each hand, and then the five fingers of the other hand make it beautifully fast to count to 60 -- nothing more natural, using the body's sense of itself I would even say eloquently. I found it quicker and easier than counting tens -- you can store three on each finger instead of just one. (Though I was of course translating into Base 10 numerals, more or less).

So I did that, counted eloquently, while the various drills and grinders sang their high- and low-pitched songs.

Weirdly, I've always found counting by threes a natural way to divide numbers, though I did not use my finger-joints.

During the most arduous bits I could not really think clearly at all, except of what I might have for breakfast once my mouth unfroze.

{rf}

Comments

[cmcmck]

I recall learning the 9x table via the fingers!

Dental appointment and hygienist for me at the end of next month but hopefully just a check up.

[larryhammer]

You can also use the phlanges plus fingers counting to count through the 60-year cycle of the Chinese calendar.

(Everyone knows the 12 zodiac animals, but the actual count is animal + element, so this upcoming year is a Wood Dragon year.)

[pantherinsnow]

Oof, yes I've had a couple of crowns done (and one re-done). The numb-space of whirring tools, the scent of what I can only call "tooth-smoke", the tense waiting for an unexpected zing when the dentist gets a little too close to the nerve's neighborhood... I feel you.

I've never studied the Sumerian counting system, but I love that idea! The connection to the phalanges in particular (I wish more folks recognized the genius of ancient peoples, who were acutely aware of the connection between their mind and body and used that in their technology). I'll have to read up on the base 60 idea.

[haertstitch]

60 divided by 5 fingers makes sense.
adding body memory would help make its stick
just curious
how many days do they have in a week?6?
it could fit in with a lunar month.

[sylvanfae]

I've adapted the ogham tree alphabet to be days of a lunar month, by adding a few more trees (three-to-four at the end of the month... sometimes the fourth one gets skipped), and hand ogham works just like this. Each aicme is five trees, so the first aicme goes across all the bottom phalanges, and I kind of consider an aicme like a week. Five "weeks" plus a few days in each month.

[radiantfracture]

Just poking around the internet I find they had a lunar calendar but inconsistent information about the idea of a week.

TIL that "19 solar years equal exactly 235 lunations." (https://www.livingwiththemoon.com/origins-of-the-calendar/)

admittedly this is a page advertising a "lifestyle calendar"

[yarrowkat]

i often count by threes as well! especially when sorting objects. i'm glad you have ended up with pleasing results from that arduous experience!

[sylvanfae]

That's almost exactly what I do during dentistry. I do my hand ogham on the phalanges, putting the last set on the fingertip or nail to complete the 20 trees or letters. I can even include the forfeda if I start going up the back of the finger. It's like rosary/mala beads, but with your knuckles, so you're never without this simple way to meditate. :)

Do you do the second set of 30 up the back of the fingers? Or maybe turn your hands to face outward to keep them separate from the first time through?

[radiantfracture]

That's almost exactly what I do during dentistry.

That's too funny! Well, there must be a reason it's a thing.

I used the insides of the fingers because it's easier to run the thumb up the joints.

I couldn't find a solid way to get past the first 60, but if you went by the phalanges instead of the fingers on the second hand, you could easily get to -- oh, look at that, 144. A gross. Love it. (Tries) Yeah, that works.