Binary Birthday

Imagine you turned 7 and your family got you a birthday cake. What else could be on top of it?

The word “Seven”?

Or maybe 1 candle per year? Those are all ways of representing the same number…

But what if I told you we can represent the number 7 using only 3 candles? Enter Binary Numbers!

This means we need to agree on some rules:

• Each candle is worth a unique value, based on its position

• We add those values to reveal our age

“But… What happens when I turn 8?” To represent that number, we need one more candle on the left

Which brings us to our final rule:

• We only add lit candles

Cool! The age of … is … in binary. See how every lit candle can be written as a 1?

People often use 1s and 0s to write binary numbers. But we’ll keep using candles

Did you notice a pattern here? In binary, every candle is worth 2× the one on its right.

That’s because we only have 2 possible digits (0 and 1)

Finally, plan your next birthday: type in the age you’ll celebrate and discover which candles you need to light up!