Counting is one of the first and simplest concepts most people are taught. But when you get beyond simple 123s, counting can become an advanced subject all its own. Essentially the science of counting, combinatorics is a key component of everything from abstract algebra to probability (PDF). [more inside]
posted by kmz on Sep 21, 2011 - 38 comments

Do you like integer sequences? Do you like poking around in the The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences? Do you think, whoa, wait, okay, actually I like integer sequences but the OEIS is a goddam intractable maze of numbers? Do you think, man, what I wish is that someone would make an accessible blog that discusses some of the interesting entries in the OEIS for the casual fan of integer sequences? Well, that's an amazing coincidence; you should take a look at The On-Line Blog of Integer Sequences, by our very own Plutor.
posted by cortex on May 5, 2011 - 26 comments

Nicaraguan Sign Language is a unique language, created by school children in the late 1970s and early 1980s, who previously had minimal success at being taught to lip-read and speak Spanish. This community has been studied as an example of the birth of a language from its beginning (PDF). A recent study has investigated the ability for those who speak Nicaraguan Sign Language to express exact, large numbers. Unlike the Pirahã people of the Amazon (previously) who may not have the need for specificity in large numbers, the deaf in Nicaragua are surrounded by a culture that interacts in specific numbers, yet it appears they lack accuracy with numbers higher than three or four. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Feb 10, 2011 - 21 comments

How many books are there? 129,864,880.
posted by Joe Beese on Aug 5, 2010 - 68 comments

Does a group of indigenous South Americans hold the key to our relationship with maths? Still, I thought it odd that numbers larger than five did not crop up at all in Amazonian daily life. What if you ask a Munduruku with six children how many kids they have? "He will say, 'I don't know,'" Pica said. "It is impossible to express."
posted by selton on Apr 1, 2010 - 63 comments

Chisenbop - a tool for doing simple math on your fingers, invented by Sung Jin Pai in the '40s, it uses the same principles as the abacus. Tutorial 1 and 2, and a cute kid.
posted by serazin on Jan 3, 2010 - 34 comments

How People Count Cash (via)
posted by nam3d on Oct 14, 2009 - 35 comments

BBC News is running a weekly ongoing series of articles that describe and illustrate common misconceptions (and manipulations) of statistics using examples from the news and ads.
Lesson 1: surveys. Lesson 2: counting. Lesson 3: percentage. Lesson 4: averages. Lesson 5: causation.
posted by Tehanu on Sep 3, 2008 - 46 comments

You all remember the song from Sesame Street, but you've never heard it like this: one two three FOUR FIIIVE six seven EIGHT NIIINE TEN eleven TWELVE! (via). Se7en!
posted by Astro Zombie on Jan 10, 2008 - 17 comments

Jeremy Harper is counting to one million. And blogging about it.
posted by BitterOldPunk on Jun 19, 2007 - 90 comments

More on arithmetic in the Amazon The 10/15 issue of Science has the official publication of Peter Gordon's work on numerical cognition among the Pirahã, and a companion article by Pierre Pica et al. on similar research among another Amazonian tribe, the Mundurukú. What with the U.S. election and the discovery of H. Floresiensis, this is not getting nearly as a much play as the pre-publication back in August of Peter Gordon's work. Brian Butterworth has an piece in the Guardian about both articles, and I've put some links, quotes and diagrams here. Compared to the reports on the Pirahã, the Mundurukú people, language, and experiments are all somewhat different, although the conclusions are broadly similar.
posted by myl on Oct 31, 2004 - 19 comments

Sure, they died for their country, but who's counting?! ABC has a webpage for US personnel who have died during the war on terror, but it shows only 41 have casualties. Admittedly, they have yet to update their webpage after the latest casualties, but even if they did, they would still be wrong. CNN recently said that 47 US personnel have died in Operation Enduring Freedom. That number too is wrong.

To tell the truth, I couldn't find a single story on any major news website that lists all of the US personnel who have died in operation Enduring Freedom, but these sites appear to be the closest. Neither are fully accurate, however.

A beer on me to the first person who can tell me exactly how many US personnel have died (post 9/11) as a part of Operation Enduring Freedom. Search the web. Find the names. Compare lists. Extra points to anyone who can offer up some compelling reasons why our media overlords can't keep score. Do we want to know these people's names? Does it matter?!
posted by insomnia_lj on Feb 3, 2003 - 50 comments

The Humble Penny? A site to help visualize large numbers with the common US coin. And to think I've been cursing them for so long. If I'd saved 10 million of the little buggars I'd have $100k.
posted by yoga on Dec 7, 2002 - 15 comments

Do you suffer from sleeplessness? Don't bother counting "the same dirty old sheep"!! Seems the old tried and true method does not actually work but do any of them? People are obviously obsessed with sleep in our sleep-deprived culture. What do you do to get to sleep and stay asleep at night???
posted by gloege on Jan 24, 2002 - 32 comments

Counting is profoundly political
The standards used to count (or not to count) Florida ballots is similar to the way the media reports on welfare reform success. It all depends on what you want to consider legitimate. (Happy birthday, Dad!) [PXQTZ.com]
posted by rschram on Jan 18, 2001 - 0 comments