[PALT]
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:drakeDislike: binary
:drakeLike: negabinary
If you don't know what negabinary is, it's base -2
In maths, when you have a base, you multiply each digit by the base power the position before summing them up
For instance in decimal (base 10), 367 = 7 * 10^0 + 6 * 10^1 + 3 * 10^2 = 7 * 1 + 6 * 10 + 3 * 100
In binary (base 2), 101 = 1 * 2^0 + 0 * 2^1 + 1 * 2^2 = 1 * 1 + 0 * 2 + 1 * 4 = 5
In negabinary, it's interesting, you get 110 = 0 * (-2)^0 + 1 * (-2)^1 + 1 * (-2)^2 = 0 * 1 + 1 * (-2) + 1 * 4 = 2
What's interesting in negabinary is that it achieves a similar result to balanced trinary, which is getting every natural number from -infinity to +infinity without using a bit for the sign. But it achieves it using 2 states, which is easier to have with current technology (transistors only make 2 states, and technologies that make 3 states are much more expensive)
Shitpost that turned into a blog post
@a_breakin_glass i love both balanced ternary (oops i said trinary, that's because in french it's trinaire) and negabinary
What's neat in negabinary is that omg just thinking about a negative base is impressive (that's something i love in math, how you aren't bound by reality, and it helps you explain better reality. Like i=sqrt(-1) or 1+2+3+4+...=-1/12)
What's neat with balanced ternary is omg you tweak ternary and it works better, and omg you can make a computer in balanced ternary and the Russians were working on it during the cold war
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@a_breakin_glass (what i meant about Russians : https://dev.to/buntine/the-balanced-ternary-machines-of-soviet-russia )
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@bunni yeah I've heard of setun before
cat chjara /kjara/ Shitpost that turned into a blog post
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@josh @tuxcrafting omg this is dope
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@josh @tuxcrafting by the way
"Perhaps the prettiest number system of all is the balanced ternary notation" - Donald E. Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming, Vol. 2.
Checkmate normie
(Sorry i just found this when talking about balanced ternary, and realised it's the same Knuth you talk about)
Shitpost that turned into a blog post
@bunni but balanced ternary is neat