Wooden Binary Adding Machine
Penguin December 6th, 2007
This is a well made wooden binary adding machine. The mechanics of the device are really cool. For those of you who don’t know binary, this may be a bit over your head.
Here’s a quick primer.
Normally, we count in base 10. This is from the number of fingers we have on our hands. In base 2, or binary, there are only 2 states, 0 and 1, or a bit. Where as, in base 10, there are 10 states, 0-9. The “tens” place in base 10 represents 10^1 = 10, the “hundreds” is 10^2 = 100, etc. In binary, the “tens” place represents 2^1 = 2, the “hundreds” place represents 2^2 = 4.
Now, your hands can represent a lot more than just 10. If you need to count large numbers, you can count up to 2^10 - 1, or 10 bits, or 1023.
Assignment: Represent 132 on your fingers.
- Penguin
Related posts
Add New Comment
Viewing 2 Comments
Thanks. Your comment is awaiting approval by a moderator.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Add New Comment
Trackbacks