What's binary Dad?

[SimpleSi]

My daughter (Year10) is getting into computer graphics for modifying pictures for her MySpace thingy website/space - whatever

 

Anyway, she has managed to learn that changing RGB hex codes (0xFFFF00 etc) she can change colours but didn't know why.

 

SO i thought I'd explain hexadecimal to her by reffering her back to the difference between decimal and binary.

 

"What's binary Dad?"

 

Come on- I said - you must know what binary is?

 

"Never heard of it"

 

8O 8O 8O

 

Now she's a bright kid (must take after her mother I know your all saying ) so I tend to believe her if she says she hasn't been told about it.

 

But am I right to do so - do they not teach what binary is to kids in maths or ICT?

 

(She grasped it straight away and was happy with hex as well so its not that its above her age to understand it)

 

regards

Simon

PS

 

And then we went onto debunking the lies that grownups tell little kids - I'm not talking Santa - I'm not talking Tooth Fairy - I'm talking that Red/Yellow/Blue are the primary colours

[CyberNerd]

"There are only 10 types of people in the world: Those who understand binary, and those who don't "

[SimpleSi]

Yeh - i gave her that joke at the end of the chat (or lecture as my daughters would call them )

 

Simon

[webman]

Nope, I was never taught binary or hex while I was at school in maths or ICT (1998-2003).

[john]

Nope, I was never taught binary or hex while I was at school in maths or ICT (1998-2003).

Nope I wasn't either, although I do know of them and know its all 1 and 0's. I bet it went out a about 10 years ago out of the curriculum

[webman]

Along with programming, too, as I understand it. WHERE'S THE REAL-WORLD IT!?

[russdev]

But come on when last time you used binary

 

Russ

[webman]

Subnetting in a Cisco exam

[CyberNerd]

I remember being taught binary at primary, 3rd year juniors(early 1980's).

I must be old

[SimpleSi]

Thanks for the answers.

 

Maybe I'll have a go at teaching it to some of the pupils at one of my schools and see how it goes - could be ideal activity for me to do on a Moodle with them.

 

regards

 

Simon

[Norphy]

Nope, I was never taught binary or hex while I was at school in maths or ICT (1998-2003).

Nope I wasn't either, although I do know of them and know its all 1 and 0's. I bet it went out a about 10 years ago out of the curriculum

 

I didn't get taught binary at school either and I took my GCSEs in 1996. However I did do binary and hex maths in college for my IT Applicatations BTEC

[tosca925]

If i'm honest , i can't remember doing binary at school either, but then again i dont remember much about school at all. Ithas been over 20 years since i left though......... :-(

[Midget]

Along with programming, too, as I understand it. WHERE'S THE REAL-WORLD IT!?

 

We teach VB6...... yeah I know........

[linuxgirlie]

I did ICT 2000-2002 (a-level only) and never got taught binary, I 'self' learnt it after that but never got 'taught' it until I started my OU degree.

[webman]

Midget: at least it is something though - a concept of variables, loops, function calls, maybe even some mathematics

[acb_]

I was taught binary at Junior school in the 70s. I learned to count in binary on my fingers - a useful ability which serves me well in my Microsoft exams

[nawbus]

Nope, I was never taught binary or hex while I was at school in maths or ICT (1998-2003).

 

I did both in maths both at primary and secondary schools. But then that was in the dark times of the 1970s and 1980s.

Did log tables as well...................

[webman]

We never did log tables either at school, but I covered them when I was studying for the radio amateur's exam.

[krisd32]

i did everything like log tables binary,hex etc... in my nd in telecommunications, and then covered binary and hex in my hnc computing mainly for c++ coding though.

 

Kris

[Friez]

But come on when last time you used binary

 

Russ

 

Yesterday infact I directly used binary!

We were trying to store someones privilege levels, we could use a series of BOOLS, however they're somewhat wasteful (taking up a byte each to store just one bit).

 

However, if you use an int (even if its just one byte's worth) you can store many more different bools in just one byte, pretty nifty if you're in need of saving disk space (big production servers, specifically those on MMORPG game servers employ this techique).

 

Anyway, we all use binary all the time in a round about way!

[mrforgetful]

I have a binary tattoo around my forearm.

[webman]

I wear my binary tie every once in a while

[Face-Man]

The Head of ICT makes me do the binary lesson in her GCSE class because she doesn't get it (or should that be ICT) the kids are fine with it though .

[SimpleSi]

@face-man

 

I didn't know Big Brother gave you contestants access to the web from the house

 

Simon

[Nij.UK]

We are a secondary school, and i know for a fact that the kids here YEAR 7,8 and 9 get taught binary and hex, but im not sure what year they do it in.

 

Its done as part of ICT ive never seen maths do it....