Thanks. Curiosity Show was a national science program for children featuring Dr Rob Morrison and Dr Deane Hutton. It was made in Adelaide, South Australia and screened nationally in Australia as well as in Europe, Asia and Australasia (14 countries) from 1972-1990. Deane and Rob intentionally used everyday items around the house (like old cans) so that children could repeat the demonstrations with materials they had to hand. In 1984 Curiosity Show won the Prix Jeunesse International, the world's top award for children's TV programs. Rob and Deane are steadily uploading segments at ruclips.net/user/curiosityshow Why not subscribe?
@@CuriosityShow oh a cut and paste response, my life is now complete! 😂 I didn't realise the show started as early as 1972 and was broadcast all the way through to 1990, though.
I remember this! My mother worked for the Civil Aviation Authority, with their computer which used punch cards. She kept having a hard time explaining how it worked to people in the department who couldn't understand why she needed various things, and why "fuzzy hole" was a problem. I remember seeing this clip, and very excitedly telling her about it when she got home from work. She actually started using this exact thing to explain how the computer worked to senior public servants. It's amazing how things stick - seeing a jacquard loom for the first time, while the museum tour guide was explaining to people how it worked, I already understood enough, just from this knowledge you've given here, to work out the patterns woven from looking at the cards.
Thanks for your comments. I'm glad to hear that this segment on the Curiosity Show helped your mother explain how computers work. You will find many more science activities and stories on our RUclips channel ruclips.net/user/curiosityshow Deane.
I would suggest that you make your own set of cards and go through the activities step-by-step. It will then become clearer. You will see what is happening! Deane.
I get that this was an exercise in binary, but another lesson you could take from computer science is that the optimal filing system is one that puts the most recently used folders in the first slots. When you need a folder, take it out and when you're done, put it at the front of the cabinet. Check it out in the book "Algorithms to Live By". It's pretty neat.
The way he eliminates them by lifting them with the pin is so satisfying visually and mentally... omg the sorting algorithm at the end is soo nice The number of steps are on the order of bits a number has, which means u could sort extremely huge numbers with a long enough needle? Like 32 holes u could sort 4 billion papers with 32 moves. But computer needs more "steps" because instead of just sticking a needle through a hole, you gotta check 4 billion numbers if that binary digit is on
I knew that the most common number chosen between 1 and 10 would be 7. It seems to be a magic mind-reading trick, but it was really just an exercise in probability. It is even more impressive if you ask someone to pick: a number between 1 and 10; a colour; and a fruit. the most common response will be: 7, red, and apple. Try it on your friends!! Deane.
@@stupidhandles well most people picking a number from 1 to 10 will pick an odd number because theyre seen as, well, "odd", or patternless - ie, random. you wouldnt pick 1 or 3, because theyre pretty close to the end, and you wouldnt pick 5 because its half of 10, thus "not random enough", and 9 is just one less than 10. so 7 is quickly picked as the "most random" when asked.
@@pendlera2959 With dozenal (base-12) people likely won't pick any number that's even or divisible by 3, so that leaves 1, 5, 7, 11. I bet 1 and 11 would not be picked often, which leaves 5 and 7, which I would guess have about equal probability of getting picked. With octonal (base-8) I bet all the even numbers wont be picked as likely which leaves 1, 3, 5, 7. 1 and 7 won't be picked as often because is too close to 8 or 0, which leaves 3 and 5. My gut tells me that 5 would be picked more often.
I find it really interesting that you can perform that sorting algorithm with so many fewer operations than you would with code. Since with code you have to check each element individually.
There are other natural sorting systems too. Suppose you had a pile of rods with their length representing something. Slam them all down on end and you've sorted em instantly in 1 pass. You now can look at the top tips and see the order they occur in.
Sir you have shown with the cards having 4 slots choosing 2 as base. I want to make it with 3 slots numbering from 1 to 52. Which number should I take as a base. Could you please help me in doing that?
Each hole in the card corresponds to a number that you're adding to an imaginary counter. The 4 holes are labelled 1, 2, 4, and 8. You can represent those numbers with open (1) and closed slots (0) (these are called bits). So like [ 1 1 0 0 ] would mean to add 1 and 2 which adds up to 3. The needle and holes and slots are just there to aid in the process. Instead of using your brain to manually figure out the math on what number to grab, the needle "reads" all the slots on the cards at once and automatically removes any that don't fit the combination, just through the mechanics of it. So if you add up 1 and 8 to get 9, that means the needle passes through the 1 and 8 slots in every single card in the stack. The #7 card has a closed slot (0) where the needle goes through the 8 hole, so when you go to pull the needle up it takes the #7 card with it and you can remove it from the search. It takes out card #1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, and 13 for the same reason. At the end of the process the only card that has the specific combination [ 1 0 0 1 ] (which remember, means 8 + 1) is 9. If you want to be able to search for even larger numbers you expand the number of holes to choose from. If there was a 5th hole in the combination, it would mean to add 16. So now you can get numbers as high as 13 + 16 which is 29. A 6th hole means you add 32 which means you can get up to 61. This works the other way too, if you only had 3 bits (1, 2 and 4) you could only add up to 7. Modern computers have 64 "holes" which means you can get numbers as high as 126,886,932,185,884,164,103,433,389,335,161,480,802,865,516,174,545,192,198,801,894,375,214,704,230,400,000,000,000,000. Each one has an entirely unique combination of "needle thrusts" (bits being on or off) required to retrieve it.
I actually went out and learned quite a bit about binary because of this video. I haven't quite gotten to the point I can read binary like I can English but I'm working on it. I'm also going to try this on my niece and nephew. You never know what track their lives may take from it. Edit: still not quite able to read it like English but I know my letters and numbers. I can write in it, with a bit of time. I did create a cipher based around using binary as an intermediate step.
@@bland9876 Yes, but it's still based in Binary. It's a language that, in essence, translates binary into an easier to read form for humans. Each hex character is 4 bits. If I remember correctly, the binary to hex translation is: 0000=0 0001=1 0010=2 0011=3 and so on until 1001=9 when we get 1010=A 1011=B 1100=C and so on until 1111=F. I hope that makes sense. I'm just getting off work and haven't had dinner yet. Brains a bit lagged at the moment.
But what I don’t understand is if for example you take 9 | . . | You put the needle through t first hole and discard. Now you’re only left with 8-14. Then you put the needle through the second hole and discard. You have now in turn discarded numbers 8-11. So you’ve discarded the card you set out to get... So how is this method effective?
For every slot on the top, add a hole underneath it on the bottom of the card. Also, for every hole on the top, add a slot on the bottom. Now you can use two knitting needles at once and you won't need to "shake" the cards to get them. Example: _____ ________ _______ | \/ o \/ o | | | | 10 | | | | o /\ o /\ | ---------- ----------- ---
I made up a set of cards and then experimented with them. You can think of the holes and slots as being "yes" and "no" answers to questions. You can also use two or three knitting needles at a time to answer multiple questions. Try it out and have fun! Deane.
CuriosityShow , I am a computer science student and i understand binary very well , the part where he took out 7 from the bunch was , though great , but still obvious, but what fascinated me was how he sorted the whole bunch in 4 steps , I tried to figure out how this sorting process actually worked , and I must say, it was pretty genius, each time we draw out cards with needle and place them over the stack , by symmetry half of them come out , those which have a hole at that place come out and those which have a cut stay there and with each needle pull you are basically sorting "THAT WHOLE ROW "of 1 and 0 ,, WHICH at the end , end up sorting all the cards , I know i explained it badly , but that's how it actually worked!!! And that was why I was asking you "" how you even came up with this idea " because this can't be achieved with some random hit and trail , it was somebody's genius to think that out!!!!
It's what is known as a bitwise operation and is used a fair amount in programming when you want to save memory usage. It's very useful for storing multiple values in one byte.
Now that is fantastic! The DIY aspect to this show sets it apart from every other educational programme out there. Still holds its own 30 years later.
Thanks. Curiosity Show was a national science program for children featuring Dr Rob Morrison and Dr Deane Hutton. It was made in Adelaide, South Australia and screened nationally in Australia as well as in Europe, Asia and Australasia (14 countries) from 1972-1990. Deane and Rob intentionally used everyday items around the house
(like old cans) so that children could repeat the demonstrations with materials
they had to hand. In 1984 Curiosity Show won the Prix Jeunesse International,
the world's top award for children's TV programs. Rob and Deane are steadily
uploading segments at ruclips.net/user/curiosityshow Why not subscribe?
@@CuriosityShow oh a cut and paste response, my life is now complete! 😂 I didn't realise the show started as early as 1972 and was broadcast all the way through to 1990, though.
I remember this! My mother worked for the Civil Aviation Authority, with their computer which used punch cards. She kept having a hard time explaining how it worked to people in the department who couldn't understand why she needed various things, and why "fuzzy hole" was a problem. I remember seeing this clip, and very excitedly telling her about it when she got home from work. She actually started using this exact thing to explain how the computer worked to senior public servants. It's amazing how things stick - seeing a jacquard loom for the first time, while the museum tour guide was explaining to people how it worked, I already understood enough, just from this knowledge you've given here, to work out the patterns woven from looking at the cards.
Arianddu would you mind if I ask how this cards works, i know binary, but when he rearranged every card from 1 to 2, it blew me away
I don't know that I can explain it any better than Deane does, sorry.
Thanks for your comments. I'm glad to hear that this segment on the Curiosity Show helped your mother explain how computers work. You will find many more science activities and stories on our RUclips channel ruclips.net/user/curiosityshow Deane.
I would suggest that you make your own set of cards and go through the activities step-by-step. It will then become clearer. You will see what is happening! Deane.
Fuzzy hole is very 70s.
I get that this was an exercise in binary, but another lesson you could take from computer science is that the optimal filing system is one that puts the most recently used folders in the first slots. When you need a folder, take it out and when you're done, put it at the front of the cabinet. Check it out in the book "Algorithms to Live By". It's pretty neat.
Nice demonstration of radix sort at the end there
Very nice indeed!
The way he eliminates them by lifting them with the pin is so satisfying visually and mentally... omg the sorting algorithm at the end is soo nice
The number of steps are on the order of bits a number has, which means u could sort extremely huge numbers with a long enough needle? Like 32 holes u could sort 4 billion papers with 32 moves. But computer needs more "steps" because instead of just sticking a needle through a hole, you gotta check 4 billion numbers if that binary digit is on
I chose 7 and actually said "what?" out loud when Deane correctly guessed my number!
I knew that the most common number chosen between 1 and 10 would be 7. It seems to be a magic mind-reading trick, but it was really just an exercise in probability. It is even more impressive if you ask someone to pick: a number between 1 and 10; a colour; and a fruit. the most common response will be: 7, red, and apple. Try it on your friends!! Deane.
CuriosityShow question is, why 7, I have a feeling it has a deep rooted mystical reason, ever since I can remember, my go to number is 7
@@stupidhandles well most people picking a number from 1 to 10 will pick an odd number because theyre seen as, well, "odd", or patternless - ie, random.
you wouldnt pick 1 or 3, because theyre pretty close to the end, and you wouldnt pick 5 because its half of 10, thus "not random enough", and 9 is just one less than 10. so 7 is quickly picked as the "most random" when asked.
@@colly6022 I wonder what's the most common "random" number in cultures that use other number bases, like base-12 or base-8.
@@pendlera2959 With dozenal (base-12) people likely won't pick any number that's even or divisible by 3, so that leaves 1, 5, 7, 11. I bet 1 and 11 would not be picked often, which leaves 5 and 7, which I would guess have about equal probability of getting picked.
With octonal (base-8) I bet all the even numbers wont be picked as likely which leaves 1, 3, 5, 7. 1 and 7 won't be picked as often because is too close to 8 or 0, which leaves 3 and 5. My gut tells me that 5 would be picked more often.
As someone who works with computers, this is an excellent way of explaining binary
As a vintage computer enthusiast, I find this especially fascinating! 💾
This is simply amazing. I am definitely going to build my own
Let us know how it turns out. And please share our RUclips channel with your friends www.curiosityshow.com.au Deane.
I find it really interesting that you can perform that sorting algorithm with so many fewer operations than you would with code. Since with code you have to check each element individually.
There are other natural sorting systems too. Suppose you had a pile of rods with their length representing something. Slam them all down on end and you've sorted em instantly in 1 pass. You now can look at the top tips and see the order they occur in.
A 30 year old show teaches me what any video or class didn't in 10 years. That's why I love RUclips.
I'm sorry you went to a shitty school :(
Wow. More programers need to see this! Exciting ideas come to mind for sorting and managing my data structures.
How do you know when to discard and when to keep what you picked up with the needle?
Discard when you're looking for a hole, keep otherwise.
Sir you have shown with the cards having 4 slots choosing 2 as base. I want to make it with 3 slots numbering from 1 to 52. Which number should I take as a base. Could you please help me in doing that?
I'm still trying to wrap my head around how he picked out the 7 from the jumbled stack.
Each hole in the card corresponds to a number that you're adding to an imaginary counter. The 4 holes are labelled 1, 2, 4, and 8. You can represent those numbers with open (1) and closed slots (0) (these are called bits). So like [ 1 1 0 0 ] would mean to add 1 and 2 which adds up to 3.
The needle and holes and slots are just there to aid in the process. Instead of using your brain to manually figure out the math on what number to grab, the needle "reads" all the slots on the cards at once and automatically removes any that don't fit the combination, just through the mechanics of it. So if you add up 1 and 8 to get 9, that means the needle passes through the 1 and 8 slots in every single card in the stack. The #7 card has a closed slot (0) where the needle goes through the 8 hole, so when you go to pull the needle up it takes the #7 card with it and you can remove it from the search. It takes out card #1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, and 13 for the same reason. At the end of the process the only card that has the specific combination [ 1 0 0 1 ] (which remember, means 8 + 1) is 9.
If you want to be able to search for even larger numbers you expand the number of holes to choose from. If there was a 5th hole in the combination, it would mean to add 16. So now you can get numbers as high as 13 + 16 which is 29. A 6th hole means you add 32 which means you can get up to 61. This works the other way too, if you only had 3 bits (1, 2 and 4) you could only add up to 7. Modern computers have 64 "holes" which means you can get numbers as high as 126,886,932,185,884,164,103,433,389,335,161,480,802,865,516,174,545,192,198,801,894,375,214,704,230,400,000,000,000,000. Each one has an entirely unique combination of "needle thrusts" (bits being on or off) required to retrieve it.
I actually went out and learned quite a bit about binary because of this video. I haven't quite gotten to the point I can read binary like I can English but I'm working on it. I'm also going to try this on my niece and nephew. You never know what track their lives may take from it.
Edit: still not quite able to read it like English but I know my letters and numbers. I can write in it, with a bit of time. I did create a cipher based around using binary as an intermediate step.
I think it's even more confusing nowadays because we also use hexadecimal.
@@bland9876 lol. Maybe. But hex is still binary based.
@@FokkeWulfe no hex is base 16
@@bland9876 Yes, but it's still based in Binary. It's a language that, in essence, translates binary into an easier to read form for humans. Each hex character is 4 bits.
If I remember correctly, the binary to hex translation is:
0000=0
0001=1
0010=2
0011=3
and so on until 1001=9 when we get
1010=A
1011=B
1100=C
and so on until 1111=F.
I hope that makes sense. I'm just getting off work and haven't had dinner yet. Brains a bit lagged at the moment.
@@FokkeWulfe "into an easier to read fromat for humans" lol
But what I don’t understand is if for example you take 9 | . . |
You put the needle through t first hole and discard. Now you’re only left with 8-14. Then you put the needle through the second hole and discard. You have now in turn discarded numbers 8-11. So you’ve discarded the card you set out to get...
So how is this method effective?
For every slot on the top, add a hole underneath it on the bottom of the card. Also, for every hole on the top, add a slot on the bottom. Now you can use two knitting needles at once and you won't need to "shake" the cards to get them.
Example:
_____ ________ _______
| \/ o \/ o |
| |
| 10 |
| |
| o /\ o /\ |
---------- ----------- ---
woah. i wonder if you could put grey code on the sides and use it to convert between binary & grey code
And that's a Numberwhang!
Amazing, how did you come up with this idea
I made up a set of cards and then experimented with them. You can think of the holes and slots as being "yes" and "no" answers to questions. You can also use two or three knitting needles at a time to answer multiple questions. Try it out and have fun! Deane.
CuriosityShow , I am a computer science student and i understand binary very well , the part where he took out 7 from the bunch was , though great , but still obvious, but what fascinated me was how he sorted the whole bunch in 4 steps , I tried to figure out how this sorting process actually worked , and I must say, it was pretty genius, each time we draw out cards with needle and place them over the stack , by symmetry half of them come out , those which have a hole at that place come out and those which have a cut stay there and with each needle pull you are basically sorting "THAT WHOLE ROW "of 1 and 0 ,, WHICH at the end , end up sorting all the cards , I know i explained it badly , but that's how it actually worked!!! And that was why I was asking you "" how you even came up with this idea " because this can't be achieved with some random hit and trail , it was somebody's genius to think that out!!!!
It's what is known as a bitwise operation and is used a fair amount in programming when you want to save memory usage.
It's very useful for storing multiple values in one byte.
Now I know why I was fired from that sorting job at the payroll company all those years ago...I forgot my knitting needles at home....sigh
What happened to 0 and 15?
0 would be all closed holes, and 15 would be all open holes. It would sort fine, but they way he searches, he would always get 0 and never get 15.
Show it to your binary friends.
Thank you!
I did say 7
what a cool sort idea.
Good stuff
Binary.... its as easy as 01, 10, 11 😃
There are 10 types of people in the world. Those that understand binary, and those that don't.
holy crap I actually picked 7
Over 30 years on, 7!
I picked seven. Whoooya!
Who else said 7 before he did?
RADIX SORT.
Why isn't binary computation taught like this?
*tries nit to pick the number he does*
Thats right, 7.
What the fuck Deane
7 = 111
This is a demonstration of bitwise operations.
I said 7 and it freaked me out lol
I actually said 7. Magic
Who here did NOT pick 7? I picked 12.
That gave me a headache.