Not wrong way round Dave. It’s all in the position of the digits/candles.supersparky wrote: ↑Sat Oct 26, 2024 3:46 pm Ray, your cake is the wrong way around, and happy 77th birthday, for when it comes along.
In metric counting (10-base), the order of progression when you reach 9 to 10, 99 to 100 etc is to revert to zeros and add the next digit on the left, then resume adding to the zero with the next number in the sequence. As there are nine, the sequence continues for a few lines.
So it’s 10000/1000/100/10/1.
(It becomes clearer when you stack them vertically.)
Same with binary (or 2-base):
0/1 … then you run out of numbers, two has to add a column so it’s 10 and three becomes 11, four is 100, five is 101.. so it goes on.
The order of progression is therefore:
128/64/32/16/8/4/2/1
(Use 5c coins and lay them both out vertically on a table left aligned and you’ll see it clearly.)
.
..
….
…….. etc. (can’t left align text here)
Or you could just open Excel on your computer and type the numbers into a column.
The candles lit are for 16 and 1.
If you turn the cake 180 deg, it becomes a 136th birthday.
As shown, in the metric system it would be a 10,001 birthday.
