Thursday, February 22, 2007

Binary conversions

In the binary code, every 1 means yes or on and every 0 means no or off. To convert a binary number such as 110010101, I did (2^0 + 2^2 + 2^4 + 2^7 + 2^8= 405). i used those numbers because binary is a base 2 system. and for every 1, reading from right to left, the exponent goes up 1 (starting at 0). whenever there was a 0, i just skipped it and left it as a 0 since it means "off" and whenever there was a 1, i did 2^(position of the 1) since it means "on". I then added them all up as shown above to get 405.

To convert a decimal number such as 529 to binary, you must do the following:
-Take the original number, 529, and divide it by 2. If you get a remainder you should put down a 1 and round the number down so that you can divide it by 2 again. If you were to get a number to divide with no quotient, then you put down a zero. You should plot down your 1's and 0's going from right to left as you divide the number. 529 should come out to be 1000010001 if done correctly.

A positional number system is when each position is related to the next position by a constant multiplier or "base."

A non-positional number is where each number is spereated by a mark of some sort so that you can read it and distinguish numbers. Roman numerals is a good example. to write 154 would be I.V.IV using periods to tell the numbers apart.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

UNIX

4 important Unix commands are cd, ls, pwd, and clear. cd alone will brong you to the home directory but u can also go to specified directory by typing in cd . ls will list components within a directory. like with cd, you can type ls and it lists the components within that directory (ls is equivalent to dir in DOS). the pwd command tells your the location of where you are and its full directory name. clear (cls in DOS) will clear the screen and helps keep you organized. There are other commands just as mkdir (makes directory), cal (shows calendar), exit (exits).

Andy Clark's chapter 6 "Global Warming" is concerning the face that the human brain and technology are evolving into the same thing. Both man and machines depend on each other now.

Thursday, February 8, 2007

Modeling the World

I thought that the Lecture was very interesting and insightful. Even though i knew most of the information given from High School senior physics, there were some new things i learned. I had already know the about the history of Aristotle, Galileo, and Newton but had not really know much about Fibonaci but i recognize the name. I sort of have an understanding of how the fibonachi numbers work but i could use some inprovement.