[math-fun] Binary calculators
In conjunction with the Global Math Project, I'm putting together a list of videos showing interesting forms of binary calculation, using water in cups, trains on tracks, etc.: http://mathenchant.org/binary.html I'm aware that the categorization of the links is a bit inconsistent; I plan to fix that before I publicize the webpage broadly. For now I'm mostly looking for more interesting links, and I figure that some of you will know about things I'm unaware of. I also am chasing the idea (mirage?) of a robust, cheap, easy-to-build binary calculator that could be taken on as an in-class project by students around the world. (Call it the mathematical equivalent of the penny-a-shot rotavirus vaccine.) I have no idea how to build such a thing, but maybe some really clever person has already figured it out. Thanks, Jim Propp
You must have seen the domputer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpLU__bhu2w. All it needs is a huge number of dominoes. A few years ago I built the PAPAC-00, a "2-register, 1-bit, fixed-instruction binary digital computer", out of card and pins. It was very fiddly and not at all tolerant of errors in the cutting-out. I first saw it at http://longstreet.typepad.com/books/2010/11/item-mayer-rollin-p-papac-00-a-d..., though there's another reproduction in "IRE Transactions on Electronic Computers" at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=5222708. Papy's Minicomputer is a very exploding dots-ish idea: it's a square board divided into 4, and you "calculate" by moving counters around - a counter on the 2s square is worth two counters on the 1s square, and so on. Frédérique Papy wrote a paper about it: http://www.rkennes.be/Papy-Minicomputer/minicomp-anglais.pdf I note that while gmail was spamming math-fun emails for me, someone else pointed you to Chalcraft and Greene's train sets paper (and on my site, no less! I never expected it to actually be *useful*!) On Tue, 21 Mar 2017 at 14:33 James Propp <jamespropp@gmail.com> wrote: In conjunction with the Global Math Project, I'm putting together a list of videos showing interesting forms of binary calculation, using water in cups, trains on tracks, etc.: http://mathenchant.org/binary.html I'm aware that the categorization of the links is a bit inconsistent; I plan to fix that before I publicize the webpage broadly. For now I'm mostly looking for more interesting links, and I figure that some of you will know about things I'm unaware of. I also am chasing the idea (mirage?) of a robust, cheap, easy-to-build binary calculator that could be taken on as an in-class project by students around the world. (Call it the mathematical equivalent of the penny-a-shot rotavirus vaccine.) I have no idea how to build such a thing, but maybe some really clever person has already figured it out. Thanks, Jim Propp _______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
Hello, a number of years ago I used a method to compute a binary number using the ruler and compass, the number was arctan(1/2)/Pi, here is the article : http://www.plouffe.fr/simon/compass.html Best regards, Simon Plouffe
Well, that knocks into a cocked hat my "calculation" of sqrt(2) by folding a piece of A4 paper: http://aperiodical.com/2016/04/approximate-a-ratio-by-folding-a-piece-of-pap... . The same process failed to confirm that my bath towel is in the ratio 2:3, for obvious reasons. On Tue, 21 Mar 2017 at 15:08 Simon Plouffe <simon.plouffe@gmail.com> wrote: Hello, a number of years ago I used a method to compute a binary number using the ruler and compass, the number was arctan(1/2)/Pi, here is the article : http://www.plouffe.fr/simon/compass.html Best regards, Simon Plouffe _______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
IIRC, someone has done a water fountain with fluid logic, making some sort of counter -- maybe a LFSR shift register. Has anyone seen this? Rich ------------------- Quoting James Propp <jamespropp@gmail.com>:
In conjunction with the Global Math Project, I'm putting together a list of videos showing interesting forms of binary calculation, using water in cups, trains on tracks, etc.:
http://mathenchant.org/binary.html
I'm aware that the categorization of the links is a bit inconsistent; I plan to fix that before I publicize the webpage broadly. For now I'm mostly looking for more interesting links, and I figure that some of you will know about things I'm unaware of.
I also am chasing the idea (mirage?) of a robust, cheap, easy-to-build binary calculator that could be taken on as an in-class project by students around the world. (Call it the mathematical equivalent of the penny-a-shot rotavirus vaccine.) I have no idea how to build such a thing, but maybe some really clever person has already figured it out.
Thanks,
Jim Propp _______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
On 22/03/2017 07:08, rcs@xmission.com wrote:
IIRC, someone has done a water fountain with fluid logic, making some sort of counter -- maybe a LFSR shift register. Has anyone seen this?
Not in any way what anyone in this thread is looking for, but it reminded me of this http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/N/number-crunching.html (and the others in the series, reachable by chasing previous/next links). -- g
I guess you know about DIGICOMP-I. I still have mine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digi-Comp_I On 3/21/17 10:32 AM, James Propp wrote:
In conjunction with the Global Math Project, I'm putting together a list of videos showing interesting forms of binary calculation, using water in cups, trains on tracks, etc.:
http://mathenchant.org/binary.html
I'm aware that the categorization of the links is a bit inconsistent; I plan to fix that before I publicize the webpage broadly. For now I'm mostly looking for more interesting links, and I figure that some of you will know about things I'm unaware of.
I also am chasing the idea (mirage?) of a robust, cheap, easy-to-build binary calculator that could be taken on as an in-class project by students around the world. (Call it the mathematical equivalent of the penny-a-shot rotavirus vaccine.) I have no idea how to build such a thing, but maybe some really clever person has already figured it out.
Thanks,
Jim Propp _______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
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Simon Plouffe