Binary Scrabble

Binary Number Scrabble The Game. Wow. This contribution to Instructables.com comes from one of the founders of the website. Players can download instructions from Instructables.com and make their own version of this tile-based game where the objective is to earn points by placing equivalent binary expressions.

A Binary Card Trick

You put a deck of cards in your pocket, and invite anyone in the audience to call out a number between 1 and 15. Then you reach into your pocket, you take out a set of cards whose sum is the number that was called! How can you perform this magic trick?

The magic of Binary!

Amazing.

From Su, Francis E., et al. "Binary Card Trick." Mudd Math Fun Facts:

Every number between 1 and 15 has a unique representation as a sum of some collection of the numbers 1, 2, 4, and 8 (the four powers of two represented by a nibble, i.e. four bits). Before the trick starts, pick an Ace, 2, 4, and 8 and put them on top of the deck, and then put the deck in your pocket. Then when a number between 1 and 15 is called out, take the binary decomposition of the number, and use that to determine which of the first four cards you will pull out.

No one needs to know that you never need to use the other cards!

DigiColor Binary Game

DigiColor has created two versions of their colorful binary counting toy. One small and one large, both plastic games are really cool. Colorful plastic balls travel down a binary tree and land in the appropriate bit bucket to represent the sum of the decimal numbers to the left of each toy. A good way to learn simple binary arithmetic, because four bit binary involves only the decimal numbers 0 -15 and the first four powers of 2.

Howtoons.com Counting in Binary Poster

Beautiful! Drawn by the creative artists at Howtoons.com, this is an excellent demonstration of how to count in binary with your hands (and feet). Fingers and toes are used as binary digits (pun definitely intended), providing a visual reminder that 1 indicates True and 0 indicates False.

Learn how to count in binary with your fingers and toes by downloading the Howtoons.com poster.

Watch an Octopus Count in Binary

Nice! An animated video of an octopus learning how to count in binary. Originally created for an introductory computer science class at Rutgers University. Watch how each tentacle represents one bit. Eight tentacles = eight powers of 2! A great way to teach students how to learn the basics of binary arithmetic.

The Art of Binary and the Fibonacci Sequence

Most math students learn about the Fibonacci sequence during their studies (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, ... where the next term is the sum of the previous two terms). In this case, a binary plot is used to represent each term in Fibonacci sequence with it's binary equivalent. Each bit is represented by a pixel, 1's are colored black and 0's are colored white. Seems to be a rather significant fractal pattern emerging...

Find out more here!

A Binary Marble Adding Machine

Matthias Wandel demonstrates his fantastic creation: A Binary Marble Adding Machine. Made of wood, the machine uses marbles to represent binary digits (6 bits).

Read more about the 6-bit Binary Marble Adding Machine here!.