The Pioneer 10 (also known as Pioneer F) spacecraft, launched in 1972 and now on a very long journey towards Taurus, has a plaque mounted on it which is designed to inform alien civilizations about the spacecraft’s origin. The plaque contains a diagram of our solar system, the trajectory of the spacecraft, a drawing of a man and woman, and groups of vertical and horizontal strokes — you guessed it, binary code — that gives information about how to find us:
Pioneer 10 Plaque (click image for higher resolution).
Continue reading …
I’m not the only one with a binary brain.
The other day my son showed me a page in a Star Wars® book which described a character named Ki-Adi-Mundi, who up until that point we knew as “big brain head.” I read in his bio that he has a binary brain, at which point I exclaimed, “Hey, just like me!” Well, not quite — his is binary in a different sense:
From starwars.com:
“Ki’s most distinguishing physical feature was an enlarged conical cranium that contained a binary brain.”
Continue reading …
According to Merriam-Webster, there are two ways to pronounce binary:
- “bye’ nuh ree” (rhymes with “winery”)
- “bye’ nairy” (flows like the words “bye Mary”)
Continue reading …
