HMCS, binary number system

Page 6. 1.2.2 "Other Number Systems"

There is a lovely table of binary numbers. Also, later on there is a chart about how many bytes it takes to represent integers.

This stuff is pretty cool. I know it is basic computer 101. Somehow I feel that math teachers probably don't teach this in America, even still. But I did hear that basic computer science education is prevalent in China.

Basically, I am saying that I freely admit to being an idiot, but I blame it on my country's poor education system. Failure to inspire personal interest in computer science.

Here is what is cool about the binary number system.

0 0
1 1
2 10
3 11
4 100
5 101
6 110
7 111
8 1000
...
16 10000

I looked at these numbers for a while. Each digit corresponds to the numbers we all know from computers 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256...

The binary number system is kind of adorable. I wonder if they make a binary abacus. . .
Yes, actually, they do: http://www.binaryabacus.com/

Whoa! Crazy! http://www.glumbert.com/media/marblebinary
This marble game would be really great for teaching binary, especially if someone was having a hard time understanding.

Here are his instructions for building one: http://woodgears.ca/marbleadd/build.html
I love that he started with legos.