can anyone direct me to explanations of binary numbers for kids?

[megletthesecond]

It needs to be thicky level of explanation because I need to understand them before I read a kids computing book with 9yo ds.

Does anyone know of any clever YouTube vids about binary numbers? Thanks.

very good! I'm 101101, which is 100 years older than you.

To come late to the party - and to lower the tone a bit: whenever I teach this to children, I deploy chocolate.

I draw lots of columns and start with base ten. I get the children to "head" the columns, and we think of a number, then represent it with chocolate buttons in the relevant columns (103 = 1 button in the hundreds column; none in the tens; 3 in the ones). We notice that you can't have ten buttons in a column - if you do, they have to be bumped out and exchanged.

We then move on to try a different base, using the same method.

It's probably not as mathematically pure but I've found it amazingly effective (they get to eat the buttons at the end).

Ok ok - I read it backwards! Explanation is still true!

And of course, there's that well-known joke printed on t-shirts /mugs etc:

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

It's perfect because it works whether you read it in base 10 or binary.

I am 1101 too!

DS is 11 and DD is 1

I friggin love binary!

crochet you have no idea how happy I am to finally get that joke .

00100100110100000001100111010000001101010011101000101000110100101101000100000101000010110010000010000001000100010110100

Well that took a long fucking time!

I've previously played with binary using and app.

But I found doing that ^ sadly an enjoyable achievement

Oh yy I'm pleased I get that joke now too

I'm guessing that's not how old you are leave the room...

One more question. When I say a binary number I have to use ones and zero's don't I?

DS (who now gets it too) was saying 10 in binary was "one thousand and ten" but I think it should be "one zero one zero"?

yes, say ones and zeroes, if you want to describe what the number looks like on paper, or just say the number normally - because after all, it is still a representation of the concept of that number! It's only the written form that is different. (Of course, our language is largely constructed around base 10 in the way the words for the numbers are created, but that's a slightly separate issue - not all languages work quite the same way).

No MummySparkle they are letters.

It's a message if anyone can be bothered to work it out I'm so sad

ileave I'm working on your message. I need some time to sit down and figure it out.

ilove - is your first packet a symbol or a letter? If it's a letter, I think youo might want to check it.

should be a letter, will check the rest.

It's not a great message

OK just checked, I may have missed a 0 on an A right at the end but, if you've got that far you should get the jist of it!

Try Tom Lehrer's New Math on YouTube, there is one with an animation. Explains Base 8 anyway and slightly sick humour appeals to children!

Geek joke - there are 10 types of people in the world , those who understand binary and those who don't.