# Counting in your head



## Manofadventure (Dec 20, 2010)

azdahak said:


> Is English your native? I know numbers slow me down when I have to speak in another language.


Yes I'm a native English speaker but I was taught french in primary school and found it easier to count in french and then translate into English


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## clairdelunatic (Mar 20, 2013)

unINFalliPle said:


> Talking to myself. I have 12 steps in my house. I count 1-2-3-4 three times. When I'm hyper or in a good mood, I do this. Not sure why.


I do this TOO! And I have 12 steps in MY house! What?!

I used to have 13 steps at my old house. Prime numbers, man...


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## unINFalliPle (Jul 8, 2012)

clairdelunatic said:


> I do this TOO! And I have 12 steps in MY house! What?!
> 
> I used to have 13 steps at my old house. Prime numbers, man...


Haha, that's great. I agree about prime numbers. =p


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## Pathosray (Mar 13, 2012)

In my head.


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## Psychosmurf (Aug 22, 2010)

tanstaafl28 said:


> Visualization in my head combined with self-talk.


Pretty much this.

It's like all the numbers are laid out on a table and I simply "slide" from one to the next in a zig-zag pattern and say them in my head as I go along.

It looks sort of like this:


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## Hikikomori (Feb 14, 2013)

By biting down with each passing integer, which I count in my head.


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## Takadox (Apr 5, 2013)

I do both self talk and visualize, but I visualize more when I'm doing arithmetic.

I kind of imagine throwing to numbers together when multiplying and division, numbers falling on eachother for addition and subtraction

Anything more complex I just write down in my head so to speak, and proceed to use every math trick in the book to make it manageable.


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## azdahak (Mar 2, 2013)

Takadox said:


> I do both self talk and visualize, but I visualize more when I'm doing arithmetic.
> 
> I kind of imagine throwing to numbers together when multiplying and division, numbers falling on eachother for addition and subtraction
> 
> Anything more complex I just write down in my head so to speak, and proceed to use every math trick in the book to make it manageable.



How does that work…do they sort of "add up" to bigger piles? I sort of do that for very small numbers, like if I'm adding up page totals to grade an exam.


For instance, say I have 23, 35, 20, and 19 to add up. I will "push" the 3 off the 23 and the 5 as well. I'll pull down a "1" from the "3" and add it to 19 to make 20. Then add 20+30+20+20 = 90 then tack on the 5+2 for 97. 

I'm just collecting together 10's …but when I do it, it has a visually imagined component of movement to it….I might even act it out with my hand…like I'm shooing the 3 away.

But if I just want to count time…it's an aural process. I have to talk to myself to do it, although I might visually imagine a clock ticking as well. But it would be impossible for me to consciously count a minute while I was simultaneously talking, and be accurate about it.


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## Takadox (Apr 5, 2013)

azdahak said:


> How does that work…do they sort of "add up" to bigger piles? I sort of do that for very small numbers, like if I'm adding up page totals to grade an exam.
> 
> 
> For instance, say I have 23, 35, 20, and 19 to add up. I will "push" the 3 off the 23 and the 5 as well. I'll pull down a "1" from the "3" and add it to 19 to make 20. Then add 20+30+20+20 = 90 then tack on the 5+2 for 97.
> ...


That is exactly it for my adding, just love my tens, same for all other operations though.

Well for time I usually counted, but I'm a big runner so you get used to constantly measuring the passage of time, so I'm pretty accurate without to much thought, but its only from like 5 years of timed running 6-7 days a week sometimes so it's just out of habit. But when I'm tired or zoned out it doesn't work too well, then my sense of time is terribly warped.


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## BelovedDay (Feb 7, 2013)

Whenever I do it, I do it in my head. Using my own audible counting sounds internally, but whenever the numbers reaches a thousand I tend to tap my fingers just to remind me which thousands am I.


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## Thu (Mar 11, 2010)

Speaking to myself is how I count.
I've noticed it seems impossible for me to count while trying to visualise the process. I have tried to count the god damn sheep to induce sleeping, it's FRIGGEN IMPOSSIBLE!


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## Altivolus (Jul 10, 2011)

Since my inner monologue never shuts up, I'm basically bound to think everything in _talking_.


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## jdstankosky (May 1, 2013)

There is absolutely zero mental speaking or noise when counting incrementally up, down (LED numbers like on a clock or microwave), or performing arithmetic/multiplication/etc (like a mental blackboard, or paper and pen). It's completely visual. Like, there is literally no difference to me whether I write the problem on paper, or do it in my head, it's the same for me.

I remember information this way too, I have to visualize. I can't assimilate pure "data," I have to visualize it, then recall it visually.

Even music is somewhat visual for me. This one, I can't explain.


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## Tea Path (Sep 5, 2012)

fingers, otherwise: 1, 2, 3, 4, oooh I thought of something!!!! Crap. 1, 2, 3, 4


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## Tea Path (Sep 5, 2012)

jdstankosky said:


> There is absolutely zero mental speaking or noise when counting incrementally up, down (LED numbers like on a clock or microwave), or performing arithmetic/multiplication/etc (like a mental blackboard, or paper and pen). It's completely visual. Like, there is literally no difference to me whether I write the problem on paper, or do it in my head, it's the same for me.
> 
> I remember information this way too, I have to visualize. I can't assimilate pure "data," I have to visualize it, then recall it visually.
> 
> Even music is somewhat visual for me. This one, I can't explain.


Synesthesia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## DiamondDays (Sep 4, 2012)

I also see LED numbers, and i do a lot of geometric stuff in my mind too. Like, if i got a problem in my classical mechanics classes i'd twist and turn them in my head until i fully understood the dynamics, then i'd write it down and 9/10 it would be correct or need just minor adjustment.


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## jdstankosky (May 1, 2013)

DiamondDays said:


> I also see LED numbers, and i do a lot of geometric stuff in my mind too. Like, if i got a problem in my classical mechanics classes i'd twist and turn them in my head until i fully understood the dynamics, then i'd write it down and 9/10 it would be correct or need just minor adjustment.


This was one of the main reasons I quit high school in the middle of my Freshman year. I literally COULD NOT "work out" or explain my math answers, particularly in regards to geometry. Like you, I'm extremely spatial and visually oriented. I'm a pure kinesthetic to boot. How am I supposed to show them what I did, simulate my thought processes in CAD?

Not only that, but I couldn't stand questions like, "If an archer fires an arrow from his bow, and the arrow travels [some arbitrary integer] meters per second, how much distance will the arrow have traveled in 5 seconds?"

Let's see, are we assuming Earth's gravitational acceleration coefficient? What drag coefficient does the arrow have? What angle was the arrow fired at? What type of windage are we talking about here? Are there any objects the arrow might hit before the 5 seconds have passed? Etc., etc., etc...

"JUST ANSWER THE DANG QUESTION, JD!"

Screw you. This is stupid. I'm outta here.


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## DiamondDays (Sep 4, 2012)

jdstankosky said:


> This was one of the main reasons I quit high school in the middle of my Freshman year. I literally COULD NOT "work out" or explain my math answers, particularly in regards to geometry. Like you, I'm extremely spatial and visually oriented. I'm a pure kinesthetic to boot. How am I supposed to show them what I did, simulate my thought processes in CAD?
> 
> Not only that, but I couldn't stand questions like, "If an archer fires an arrow from his bow, and the arrow travels [some arbitrary integer] meters per second, how much distance will the arrow have traveled in 5 seconds?"
> 
> ...


I'm a mech. eng. major so i've had to learn to show the work anyway. It sucks because i have this huge advantage up to a point, then it becomes just a major fucking liability because the systems soon become too complex and you have to work it out on paper and then i'm all like "how the fuck do i do this?!"

But yeah, i do hate improperly worded problems too.


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## jdstankosky (May 1, 2013)

Tea Path said:


> Synesthesia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Chromesthesia...



> ...produces waving lines like oscilloscope configurations – lines moving in color, often metallic with height, width and, most importantly, depth.


That is pretty close to what it's like for me. I'd almost describe it like viewing a wireframe 3D model of a water drop ripple, with all the lines and vertices oscillating at different frequencies / hues / saturation levels. It's extremely difficult to explain.


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## Deus Absconditus (Feb 27, 2011)

I visualize and have an inner monologue, sometimes one more than the other which is based on what I'm doing with the numbers. If I'm just counting to 100, then I find it easier to just let the inner monologue do it. Even though the inner monologue is handling the task, I will notice that I'm tracing the numbers in my head. If im doing a complex math problem, I just let the visuals take over, but even though the visuals are handling it, I still hear myself repeat what I'm doing.


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