Word: digit
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Physicist-Author Jeremy Bernstein, "like a roomful of ladies knitting." The noise came from the rapid opening and closing of thousands of little switches, and it represented an enormous information flow and extremely long calculations for the time. In less than five seconds, Mark I could multiply two 23-digit numbers, a record that lasted until ENIAC'S debut two years later. But how? In part, the answer lies in a beguilingly simple form of arithmetic: the binary system. Instead of the ten digits (0 through 9) of the familiar decimal system, the computer uses just the binary...
...decimal system, each digit of a number read from right to left is understood to be multiplied by a progressively higher power of 10. Thus the number 4,932 consists of 2 multiplied by 1, plus 3 multiplied by 10, plus 9 multiplied by 10 X 10, plus 4 multiplied by 10 x 10 X 10. In the binary system, each digit of a number, again read from right to left, is multiplied by a progressively higher power of 2. Thus the binary number 11010 equals 0 times 1, plus 1 times 2, plus 0 times 2X2, plus 1 times...
...successor, G. William Miller, will find Burns' show quite as difficult to top. As chairman of the Reserve, Arthur Burns was final arbiter of the nation's money supply through eight of the most tumultuous years in economic history-years marred alternately, or sometimes simultaneously, by double-digit inflation, double-digit interest rates and deep recession. Though some of his actions helped to aggravate the economic maladies of the 70s. he became just as revered as Martin-and he was a far more complex bundle of professional and personal contradictions...
...work? The Department of Labor last week issued an updated edition of its Dictionary of Occupational Titles, used primarily by employment counselors. The 5-lb. catalogue defines, and assigns a nine-digit index number to each of 20,000 job titles, including such esoterica as sword swallower (159.647-010), rock breaker (770.687-034) and brassiere-cup-mold cutter...
...human opponent tries to work out the secret by punching pushbuttons. Milton Bradley Co., which makes the gadget, supplies scratch pads for adults and slow-witted children, but self-respecting eleven-year-olds disdain these. The girl also does not bother with the relatively easy three-and four-digit problems. She plays at the rarefied five-digit level, which means she must hit on one out of a possible 30,240 combinations, and she keeps her notes in her head, the way the computer does...