Ah, thanks all. I wasn't thinking of base 2 numbers like base 10 - when you describe it like that, I get i. (100 = 10^2 + 0*10^1 + 0*10^0) I was thinking strictly in terms of a base 10 number described by flags for each power of 2, which (to me) would logically start from 2^0 and go right.
And yeah, I intend to study computer science as I can, so it's definitely the maths papers first. I'm working through my little brother's textbook on matrix algebra at the moment. Ick. Regards, Liam Clarke On Sun, 6 Feb 2005 15:10:42 -0000, Alan Gauld <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > While I jest somewhat, that highlights a serious deficiency in my > > education that becomes more and more apparent, which is in maths. > > Yes, its a sad fact. Good programming beyond basics does require a > modicum of maths. You can learnn enough to do useful things without > math, but there reaches a point when math becomes essential. Its > no coincidence that at university Computing was traditionally > (up till the late 70's at least) a branch of mathematics. > > > But the remainder thing - would this be why we read binary the way > we do? > > > > 4 is 001 (on a continuum of 2^0 to 2^n), but using the above > approach > > we get 100. > > Not really. The reason we read 4 as 100 is the same reason we > read 400 as 400 instead of 004 - we traditionally put the most > significant part tothe left since we (in English at least) read > from left to right. > > 400 = 4x10**2 + 0x10**1 + 0x10**0 > > 110 = 1x2**2 + 0x2**1 + 0x2**0 > > But if we convert back again we can generate the number 400 > from the value 400 by the same technique we saw for binary: > > 400/10 = 40 rem 0 > 40/10 = 4 rem 0 > 4/10 = 0 rem 4 > > So reading remainders bottom up we get 400, which is > the decimal representation of 400! :-) > > So the algorithm is identical, we can write a generic > function to convert a value into a representation if we > pass in the value and base. > > Alan G. > > -- 'There is only one basic human right, and that is to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, to take the consequences. _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
