Counting sometimes involves numbers other than one; for example, when counting money, counting out change, when "counting by twos" (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12…) or when "counting by fives" (5, 10, 15, 20, 25…).
There is archeological evidence suggesting that humans have been counting for at least 50,000 years. Counting was primarily used by ancient cultures to keep track of economic data such as debts and capital (i.e., accountancy). The development of counting led to the development of mathematical notation and numeral systems.
Counting can be verbal; that is, speaking every number out loud (or mentally) to keep track of progress. This is often used to count objects that are present already, instead of counting a variety of things over time.
Counting can also be in the form of tally marks, making a mark for each number and then counting all of the marks when done tallying. This is useful when counting objects over time, such as the number of times something occurs during the course of a day.
Counting can also be in the form of finger counting, especially when counting small numbers. This is often used by children to facilitate counting and simple mathematical operations. The most naive finger-counting uses unary notation (one finger = one unit) , and is thus limited to counting 10. Other hand-gesture systems are also in use, for example the Chinese system by which one can count 10 using only gestures of one hand. By using finger binary (base 2 place-value notation), it is possible to keep a finger count up to 1023 = 210 - 1.
Various devices can also be used to facilitate counting, such as hand tally counters and abacuses.
The Jewish people also counted inclusively. For instance, Jesus announced he would die and resurrect "on the third day," i.e. two days later. Scholars most commonly place his crucifixion on a Friday afternoon and his resurrection on Sunday before sunrise, spanning three different days but a period of around 36-40 hours.
Musical terminology also uses inclusive counting of interval between notes of the standard scale: going up one note is a second interval, going up two notes is a third interval, etc., and going up seven notes is an octave.
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