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Unary(1)

The unary numeral system is the simplest numeral system to represent natural numbers: in order to represent a number N, an arbitrarily chosen symbol is repeated N times. For example, using the symbol "|" (a tally mark), the number 6 is represented as "||||||". The standard method of counting on one's fingers is effectively a unary system. Unary is most useful in counting or tallying ongoing results, such as the score in a game of sports, since no intermediate results need to be erased or discarded.