Episode 187 - What's Better Than Binary?

Binary is synonymous with digital computing. But is it the only way to crunch numbers? The short answer is no. The long answer, well, that's today's topic. Today we are talking about ternary, aka base 3. From it's early uses in the 19th century, to actual computers, and even theoretical designs; ternary proves to be a difficult topic to track down... and a very unique one.

Selected sources:

https://www.mortati.com/glusker/fowler/fowlerbio.htm - Information and a reconstruction of Fowler's contraption

https://dl.acm.org/doi/epdf/10.1145/776378.776392 - Part I of the TERNAC papers, rationale!

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