# Why do we have 5 fingers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 27, 1999, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-5-fingers/4280 "1999-10-27T01:33:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![wireless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f14d63/32.png) [@wireless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wireless)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 1999, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-5-fingers/4280/21 "1999-10-27T23:25:00Z")
Well I don’t know why we have exactly 5 fingers, but I do know why we have an odd number of them… It’s so you have a _middle_ one to flash at the driver that just cut you off! ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 1999, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-5-fingers/4280/22 "1999-10-28T04:17:00Z")
Yes folks! I was joking! 🙂 I know that if we had three digits then Base 3 would be our standard. Probably. Maybe not, but it’s impossible to say. And insects certainly don’t have seven legs. They’d walk round in circles then. * * * “Vyvyan! Where did you get that Howitzer?” “…I found it.” [The Legend Of PigeonMan](http://www.hotkey.net.au/~guanolad/pigeonman/) - updates every Wed & Sat ---
**Author:** ![Momotaro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@Momotaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Momotaro)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 1999, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-5-fingers/4280/23 "1999-10-28T04:27:00Z")
In university I studied superficially Mayan culture. Mayans were pretty good at math, it seems. They even invented the number 0, an important achievement for modern math. The symbol for zero was a shell, the symbol for one a dot, the symbol for five a horizontal bar. Numbers were written vertically. The mayans used the same principle we do in that the location of a digit change it’s power. 10 is 1_10¹ in our numerals. For the mayans writing 10 was 1_20¹=20. Some examples: . is 1 - is 5 - is 10 (It’s supposed to be a shell. It looks like an eye if you ask me.) example #1 … - is 2+5 = 7. example #2 … (space here) . = is 3_20 + (1 + 2_5) = 71. example #3 … (space here) \* (space here) - ``` is 2*400 + (0*20) + (0*1) = 800. ``` I’m doing this from memory, so hope I didn’t make any mistakes. * * * Only humans commit inhuman acts. ---
**Author:** ![Jimpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c68b51/32.png) [@Jimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimpy)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 1999, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-5-fingers/4280/24 "1999-10-28T05:32:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Animals do not have 5 fingers…on each hand Some do, yes. Almost every single land animal, if not all, have five fingers and toes while in the early embrionic stage. It’s only as they develop that they lose some. Adult horses, for example, have one toe but still have bone splints that represent two other toes and their embryoes have 5 in early stages. * * * **Jim Petty _An oak tree is just a nut that stood it’s ground_** ---
**Author:** ![NanoByte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecc23a/32.png) [@NanoByte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NanoByte)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 1999, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-5-fingers/4280/25 "1999-10-28T06:57:00Z")
We have 5 fingers because 4 were tried in the funnies and they got rather clumsy results. I’m getting bionically adapted with 50, so I can more efficiently use this 101-key keyboard. Yes, I’ll use my nose for the other key. For DrFidelius: One of those numerous philosophical Brits, it seems, has written a book named “What Counts”. It sort of harps on the point that humans acquired counting individually on their own, rather than someone’s having invented counting and passed it on. A chapter in the book is called “Everyone Counts”, and it gets into how the numerous isolated-from-each-other-and-everyone-else-until-the-last-few-decades Papua New Guinea highlanders count. It seems one tribe, the Yupno (no doubt the inventers of the first oxymoron 😉 ), doesn’t stop with a decimal or even vigesimal base, but counts on up to 33, using appropriate (?) body parts. When they run out of fingers and toes, they get into eyes, nostrils, bridge of the nose (though not mouth), male nipples, navel, testicles and penis. The author then proceeds to answer the obvious question: “The women don’t count in public. . .in fact, it’s not clear whether the women count at all.” If it feels good, you can count on it. Ray (no-'count) ---
**Author:** ![Momotaro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@Momotaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Momotaro)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 1999, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-5-fingers/4280/26 "1999-10-28T07:36:00Z")
Now _that_’s interesting! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 1999, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-5-fingers/4280/27 "1999-10-28T13:01:00Z")
It is always a good day when I learn a new piece of totally useless information. Thank you, Nano. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-5-fingers/4280.md?page=1)