What a Byte Holds
Three short lessons on the counting inside every computer: binary on one hand, why a kilobyte was 1,024, and what twelve megapixels means.
For grown-ups, from what RobotPals teaches children at Spark & Anvil.
Twenty questions to a million
You'll need: Paper and a pencil.
- One person thinks of a whole number from 1 to a million and writes it down, hidden.
- The others ask only yes-or-no questions, such as "Is it more than 500,000?"
- Count the questions. Halving the range each time finds it in 20 or fewer.
- Try a bad strategy ("Is it 7?") and compare how many questions that takes.
A little history, and what nobody knows
The word
Werner Buchholz coined the word “byte” in 1956, while IBM was designing its Stretch computer, and spelled it with a y so it could not be misread as “bit”.
Early machines used bytes of several sizes; the source does not say who first settled on eight bits.
Source: Byte (Wikipedia)
The same idea at every age
- Ages 3–5Match the Lamps
- Ages 6–8Five Lights
- Ages 9–14Not made yet
- Ages 15–18Not made yet
Your child will meet this idea again at every age. The tools and courses here are the part for you.