Ladies and gentlemen, every now and then there comes a time when a man has gathered more maths links than he can comfortably hold on to and he is forced to loosen his grip, allowing the more wriggly ones a chance to slip away and make a break for freedom. On such occasions, the sticky surface of a specially-prepared blog post can be used to trap those links, preserving them in digital formaldehyde for closer inspection by the educated viewer.
That’s right: after literally a third of a year, I’m still Christian Perfect and here’s another Aperiodical Round Up!
I’m going to start with computers and calculators, because here’s a really good one: Thomas Fowler’s ternary calculating machine. It uses balanced ternary arithmetic for a variety of reasons which become very interesting when you build your own calculator. Mark Glusker did build his own calculator; that’s a picture of him on the right, looking quietly satisfied with a job well done. No specimens or drawings of the original calculator exist, so Mr Glusker’s machine is only representative of his idea of how it might have looked.
