What can I learn/know right now in 10 minutes that will be useful for the rest of my life?

Have you ever wanted to count from 0-99 on your fingers? How about always having an abacus style method for simple math? Let me introduce you to “finger math” or Chisanbop.

1. The fingers of your right hand represent 0-9 or the “ones column”

2. The fingers of your left hand represent 10-90 or the “tens column”



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3. Only fingers touching the table are counted.

4. The thumb of each hand equals 5 or 50, respectively.

5. You start with the index finger and work outward with each hand.

6. After you reach the pinky, you raise the four fingers and place your thumb.

So #4 would have the four fingers of your right hand on the table. When you go to #5 you would lift your 4 fingers and place your right thumb on the table.

7. Continue counting while keeping the appropriate thumb on the table.

ie: #9 is represented by having your right thumb (5) + your (4) fingers on the table. 5+4=9

8. When moving from the “ones column” to the “tens column” lift all the fingers from your right hand and place 1 finger down of your left hand.

(10) Index finger left hand + (0) fingers of the right hand = 10.

9. The same rules apply to the left hand as the right.

(30) = left index, middle, and ring fingers.

(50) = left thumb only

(80) = left thumb + index, middle, and ring finger.

10. Combining your left and right hand numbers gives you the full number

Left thumb (50) + right thumb, and index (6) = 56.

11. Once you’ve learned how to use your fingers to represent the numbers, adding or subtracting (again using the concept of “10s” and “1s”) is as simple as moving beads on an abacus.

12. For sums greater than 99 or less than 0, a little memory is required in addition to finger dexterity.