Welcoming Back Summer Fun

I mentioned a while ago that I was going to fail Electrical Circuits and have to do it over the Summer Semester. Well, thankfully, I passed it, but I decided to do Digital Systems 1 over Summer Semester so that I could do psychology and philosophy and decide which I want to major in. My first class was on Tuesday, wasn't as bad as I expected. It was held in the same theatre as Electrical Circuits, I thought that was a really bad sign, but it was pretty interesting. I'm going to go into some weird stuff now...

Binary numbers- I'm sure you've all heard of binary numbers (you know, there are only 10 types of people in the world- those who know binary, and those who don't). Well, did you know a shortcut to convert decimal to binary is this division thing?

Take the decimal number 57:

57/2 = 28 remainder 1
28/2 = 14 remainder 0
14/2 = 7 remainder 0
7/2 = 3 remainder 1
3/2 = 1 remainder 1
1/2 = 0 remainder 1

And so you take the remainders, starting from the bottom 111001 to get the number 57 in decimal. Cool, huh? And that works with any base, you just divide with the new base instead of 2.

And if you wanted to convert from binary to octal (base eight), then you just group them into groups of three:

(using decimal 57 again)

111 001 (in binary)

111 in binary codes for 7
001 in binary codes for 1

so 57 (decimal) = 71 in octal.

And, if you were really demented, or really loved numbers, you could convert from binary into hexadecimal (base 16- has numbers 0 through to 9, and then A = 10, B= 11 up to F=15)! Just like for octal, only you group them into groups of four.

(using decimal 57 again)

0011 1001 (in binary-added two 0's to make groups even)

0011 in binary codes for 3
1001 in binary codes for 9

So 57 (decimal) = 39 in hex. 1111 1111

[Oh, and just to illustrate the letter thing, 15 in dec = F in hex. 16 in dec = 10 in hex. 255 in dec = FF in hex.]

But wait, there's still more! There's BCD (binary coded decimal). Where instead of converting the whole number to binary, you code each individual digit.

So 57 becomes 0101 0111.


Well, that's it for number systems. I have to admit though, that even though I wrote this kinda sarcastically, I'm actually interested in this subject! I'm still finding it hard to stay awake in the lectures, but that's mostly due to the fact that it's in the morning.

I think there was something that I was going to write about, but I forgot what it is. Oh, I finally checked out the engineering library. It's scary in there, not anywhere near as friendly as the Rowden White. I picked up a few books and looked inside, and there were so many acronyms that I doubt there were any real words in there! They also happen to have old copies of The Engineer, which is a magazine for engineers. I thought it'd have articles about how many pens to have in your pocket, and what to eat if you want to code all night, but it looked pretty normal.

Well, for those of you who passed the boring number stuff and the engineering library stuff, I managed to remember what I was going to post about, other than Summer semester. You know how when you have a crush on someone, you get this weird feeling whenever they're around? Well, I got that feeling today, and it was when I saw someone that I didn't expect to see. So I was kinda in shock for a moment and speechless, so that when he started talking to me I panicked. And Bridget Jones style word vomit came out. I think she would have been proud. I also found out that he's graduating next year - well, if he passes everything this year, so after this year, I won't see him! T.T That should be reason enough to talk to him, right? But I don't know him that well, and it feels weird. Oh well, maybe something strange will happen during this year, it has only just begun after all.