Have you noticed how certain binary counters count ? They work by
hitting bit n every 2^n moves. As such they are binary counters.
It is also the case with the impressive trinary and quinary
counters.
But when you try to read the value of the bits ..well...they are
quite difficult to interpret.
Now look at level 406 in "Special-I.lvl" (9-bit binary counter by
Horst Ledpeddle). That one is a quite clear counter and the bits can
be read easily. what do they show ?
Move after move, the counter displays :
0,1,3,2,6,7,5,4,12,13,15,14,10,11,9,8,24,25,27,26,30,31,29... and so
on.
Why don't they display 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9.... the usual binary
sequence ?? Well that's because the way they work (hit bit n every
2^n moves) cannot lead to the normal sequence.
So what is that strange sequence ?
I finally found out the name of that sequence : the GRAY CODE.
Most of the n-ary counters we have designed with Laser Tank count in
the Gray code. Actually all the counters that are triggered with
anti-tank shots display the Gray Sequence.
For more information, see http://mathworld.wolfram.com/GrayCode.html
Alexis Monnerot.
hitting bit n every 2^n moves. As such they are binary counters.
It is also the case with the impressive trinary and quinary
counters.
But when you try to read the value of the bits ..well...they are
quite difficult to interpret.
Now look at level 406 in "Special-I.lvl" (9-bit binary counter by
Horst Ledpeddle). That one is a quite clear counter and the bits can
be read easily. what do they show ?
Move after move, the counter displays :
0,1,3,2,6,7,5,4,12,13,15,14,10,11,9,8,24,25,27,26,30,31,29... and so
on.
Why don't they display 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9.... the usual binary
sequence ?? Well that's because the way they work (hit bit n every
2^n moves) cannot lead to the normal sequence.
So what is that strange sequence ?
I finally found out the name of that sequence : the GRAY CODE.
Most of the n-ary counters we have designed with Laser Tank count in
the Gray code. Actually all the counters that are triggered with
anti-tank shots display the Gray Sequence.
For more information, see http://mathworld.wolfram.com/GrayCode.html
Alexis Monnerot.