Would you be surprised to find out that a computer can only add?

Actually, it's quite true and when you get into advanced math, you will find out that there is really no such thing as
subtraction, division and multiplication, all there is is addition.

Multiplication is repeated addition
Subtraction is reversed addition (i.e. 23-10 is really 23 + -10)
Division is repeated subtraction which is repeated reversed addition.

Interesting, isn't it?

I really hated Intermediate Algebra in college

Who knows, maybe this will turn up on Jeopardy (Sony Television) some day as a clue.

Jeff

That's an interesting addition to my knowledge.

But couldn't you also say math is nothing but subtraction (2 plus 2 is the same as 2 minus -2, etc.)?

Useless fact - hair and fingernails continue to grow after death.

Sorry 'bout this, but no, they don't. The skin begins to recede (dry up) and so it only appears that hair and nails grow.

And the basic addition function is a 'half-adder', which is nothing more than an 'exclusive or' gate. Add an 'and' gate, to get the carry, and you have a full-adder.

How do they do exponents?

Hair follicles will continue to function for a short period of time after death, due to the way the blood is supplied. So hair will continue to grow, but only for a short time and the amount of growth is negligible.

I've done no research on the nails, so I can't definitively say one way or the other.

I knew the addition fact.

I was also told in passing that NASA only uses the old Intel 386's as they know how to communicate directly with the core. Don't know if that's true or not.

Also, did anyone know that the first bug ever recorded in a computer was actually a moth that had gotten into a relay somewhere? And the term debugging comes from when technicians would enter the tower (they were a lot bigger in those days) and clear away all the moths and other bugs.

If alloted four square feet apiece (2' x 2'), the entire population of the Earth could fit into a square just thirty miles on a side. With room left for some Porta-Johns and a couple of hot dog stands.

Makes sense. I kinda knew this before hand, mostly because computers can only understand 1's and 0's. Really computers can only remember how many 1's it has and how many 0's it has or doesn't have.

I didn't know it, had a rough idea of that it being true.

Where can you verify this?