Hey, this might be an easy question, but I just asked a guy who works for the IRS and he didn’t know.
Everyone seems to know (and use) a shorthand counting method that involves making four marks and then crossing them out with a fifth. This, naturally, makes it easy to count up by fives at the end and then add any remainder. My questions are as follows:
**What is this shorthand method called? Why does it seem that everyone does it unconsciously (I don’t remember it being taught to ME)? Are there any other common counting shorthands, and what are they called? **
I realize that this is trivia beyond trivia, but that’s why we’re here, right?
Huh. I remember being taught in school. We practiced counting things using the method. It was supposed to be a faster way of counting than writing down all the numbers. I’m 25, so this would have been late 80s probably.
I also specifically remember being taught this in school. It was in second grade, so that would be 1991 or 1992. We were given a homework assignment that involved going home and counting up various househould items (shoes, belts, etc.) with tally marks.
I don’t know, I was never taught the I, II, III, IIII, IIII method, so I naturally just did it like this in groups of 5 strikes each grouped in 4 or 5 sets: