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Negative Base

by int_10h on 6/27/18, 12:04 PM with 69 comments

  • by msoucy on 6/28/18, 1:33 PM

    When I was part of an organization in college, part of the onboarding process was that each applicant had to have a conversation and (possibly) do a "quest" for each member. My standing quest was that I would write the first 12 or so numbers in negabinary on my whiteboard, and have them determine the next few numbers and explain what they meant. I had people sitting outside my room for hours trying to figure it out. A few did do it, and normally had some expletives for me afterward.
  • by JdeBP on 6/28/18, 1:10 PM

  • by rprospero on 6/28/18, 12:26 PM

    I think that's the first time I've ever seen someone use INTERCAL code to try and explain a concept.
  • by Sharlin on 6/28/18, 1:10 PM

    See also balanced ternary [1].

    [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balanced_ternary

  • by dvfjsdhgfv on 6/28/18, 12:33 PM

    Can anyone provide some examples of practical applications of this?
  • by dumbfoundded on 6/28/18, 4:03 PM

    Taken one step further, could you have irrational bases?

    i^1 = i

    i^2 = -1

    i^3 = -i

    i^4 = 1

  • by joker3 on 6/28/18, 8:25 PM

    How do you divide by numbers other than -2?