The 12-cent Perpetual Calendar

Posted by Miss Cellania in Arts & Crafts on December 31, 2008 at 11:28 am


You don’t need a new calendar for the new year, if you’ve got 12 cents and an understanding of binary numbers! Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories posted instructions for making your own perpetual calendar.

It’s Wednesday, the fourth day of the week. The binary number for 4 is 100. We use “heads” for 1 and “tails” for 0. So the left hand column has (top to bottom) heads-tails-tails = 100 binary = 4th day of week = Wednesday. (If you don’t already speak binary, no biggie. Start here or here and join us in a minute.)

It’s December, month 12, and 12 in binary is 1100, so the middle column is heads-heads-tails-tails.

Finally, the last column is all heads, since it’s December 31, and 31 decimal = 11111 binary.

Got that? Me neither. Link

 
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Pyramid coin a nightmare for pockets

Posted by Algonkin in Everything Else on December 7, 2007 at 11:13 am

Pyramid

On the Isle of Man Scotland, the government has commissioned a three-sided coin to commemorate King Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs’ exhibition at the O2 arena in London.

The copper coin which bears a portrait of the Queen and an image of Tutankhamun, is marketed by the Isle of Man’s Post Office as “a unique gift” that is “a must for all Egyptologists” and costs £15 ($30).

On one side, it shows Tutankhamun, the teenage pharaoh who died 3,330 years ago, and on the other, a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II.

John Smith, the general manager of Pobjoy Mint, which is striking the coins, said he was “delighted to launch the first ever pyramid coin”.

Mr Smith also added that no limit had been set on the number of coins that could be produced.

Link: Telegraph

 
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