Year: 2012

This is the third of a four part series on “pencil and paper” binary arithmetic, which I’m writing as a supplement to my binary calculator. The first article discusses binary addition; the second article discusses binary subtraction; this article discusses binary multiplication.

The pencil-and-paper method of binary multiplication is just like the pencil-and-paper method of decimal multiplication; the same algorithm applies, except binary numerals are manipulated instead. The way it works out though, binary multiplication is much simpler. The multiplier contains only 0s and 1s, so each multiplication step produces either zeros or a copy of the multiplicand. So binary multiplication is not multiplication at all — it’s just repeated binary addition!

Continue reading “Binary Multiplication”

This is the second of a four part series on “pencil and paper” binary arithmetic, which I’m writing as a supplement to my binary calculator. The first article discusses binary addition; this article discusses binary subtraction.

The pencil-and-paper method of binary subtraction is just like the pencil-and-paper method of decimal subtraction you learned in elementary school. Instead of manipulating decimal numerals, however, you manipulate binary numerals, according to a basic set of rules or “facts.”

Continue reading “Binary Subtraction”

This is the first of a four part series on “pencil and paper” binary arithmetic, which I’m writing as a supplement to my binary calculator. This article introduces binary arithmetic, and then discusses binary addition.

Continue reading “Binary Addition”