Articles with the ‘Convert to decimal’ Tag

The Binary Marble Adding Machine

By Rick Regan (Published December 9th, 2008)

The Binary Marble Adding Machine is a device that adds binary numbers mechanically. It uses wood instead of silicon, gravity instead of voltage, and marbles instead of current. We don’t need no stinkin’ CMOS!

The machine may be more cool than practical, but it certainly is educational. It illustrates basic principles of binary numbers, binary arithmetic, and binary logic. Let’s take a closer look.

How to Read a Binary Clock

By Rick Regan (Published November 23rd, 2008)

What is a binary clock? Before doing a web search I would have guessed this:

My Fake Binary Alarm Clock (time is 6:43 PM).

6:43 PM on my fake binary alarm clock (courtesy photo-editing software).

In other words, a regular digital clock, except with binary numerals instead of decimal numerals. But as far as I know, a clock like this doesn’t exist. If you search for “binary clock,” you get a clock of a different design, one like this: