Friday, May 19, 2006
The binary way of life
Do you know one can actually count all the way to 1,023 (starting with zero, of course) on two standard issue hands, each with only four fingers and a single thumb.
One must use binary, or course. Each manual digit is treated as a binary digit. (I don't expect much more detail to be needed on that.) If the thumbs are not used, each hand makes one convenient 'nibble' (the binary representation of a single hex-decimal digit) and the two of them together make an eight bit word.
In short, with the participation of the thumb invited, one can count from zero to thirty-one on a single hand.
Ta-da. Teach your children to count in binary and make their eventual work with computers a more easily understood experience for all.
(You could count even higher if you allow each finger to have more than two states, but the values become increasingly difficult to read, and only binary really has a useful application.)
One must use binary, or course. Each manual digit is treated as a binary digit. (I don't expect much more detail to be needed on that.) If the thumbs are not used, each hand makes one convenient 'nibble' (the binary representation of a single hex-decimal digit) and the two of them together make an eight bit word.
In short, with the participation of the thumb invited, one can count from zero to thirty-one on a single hand.
Ta-da. Teach your children to count in binary and make their eventual work with computers a more easily understood experience for all.
(You could count even higher if you allow each finger to have more than two states, but the values become increasingly difficult to read, and only binary really has a useful application.)
