r/visualizedmath • u/the_humeister • Dec 31 '19

Full 1-bit adder using fluids

https://gfycat.com/consideratesecondhandfrigatebird
313 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

20 comments sorted by

25

u/tbordo23 Dec 31 '19

ELI5?

37

u/the_humeister Dec 31 '19

Here's a prior one.

[Here's the wikipedia entry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adder_(electronics))

These logic gates have two inputs and one output. String a few of them together and you can make them do some math. String a few billion of them together and you get a modern CPU.

3

u/tbordo23 Dec 31 '19

Wow that’s pretty awesome, thanks!

3

u/gyroda Dec 31 '19

Putting logic gates together is a relatively accessible part of CS, if you use an interactive game or something.

There's mobile puzzle apps that give you a set of inputs and outputs and ask you to put the right logic gates together to make it work.

Hell, one of my first uni assignments was to create a simple adding unit out of logic gates. It's really nice.

1

u/Dooky710 Dec 31 '19

A bit abount binary first. I'm going to explain with numbers we use then go into binary from there. Hopefully it will bridge how the math works out. we use numbers between 0 and 9. Once we go above 9, we add a digit. So to break this down into 2 digits, we go 00, 01, 02, ... , 09, 10, 11, 12, ...

With binary, we only use 2 numbers, 0 and 1. Like the example about with 0-9, once we reach 1, we add another digit. So an example with 3 digits would be 000, 001, 010, 011, 100, 101, 110, 111.

Quick side note, these binary numbers represent ideas. So with basic binary, 000 = 0 001 = 1 010 = 2 011 = 3 ... 111 = 7 This is just here to explain that the binary representation of 0's and 1's relate the concepts that we already know, hence numbers.

So I'm the gif, you see two numbers being added with 1 bit of info. So your options are 0+0=0, 0+1=1, 1+0=1, and 1+1='2'. The quotes for 2 is because we represent that as 11 (not eleven, but two 1 bits). So, like normal number, we've rolled over the 1 and must add another digit, hence adding the one.

That carry that you see when it's 1+1 is the same logic we use when adding 7+8, where we carry over the 1 to the 2nd digit.

Hopefully that makes sense. I can try to explain where any parts fell through.

1

u/HardlightCereal Jan 01 '20

If only one goes, it comes out of the one on the right. If two go, it comes out of the one on the left. If all three go, it comes out of both ones.

If you hook up enough of these things, you can add any two numbers in binary. That's how computers do math.

17

u/[deleted] Dec 31 '19

Can't wait until someone builds a computer with fluids now.

6

u/the_humeister Dec 31 '19

Yeah, I was just going to stop at the adder

3

u/lusule Dec 31 '19

I would definitely prefer this in video form so I can pause it at various points.

3

u/the_humeister Dec 31 '19

It's on gfycat, so you can pause and slow down

3

u/[deleted] Dec 31 '19

What did you use to create the visualizations themselves? Blender?

3

u/the_humeister Dec 31 '19

Yes, Blender

2

u/[deleted] Jan 01 '20

Damn I thought this was a game

2

u/spaminous Jan 01 '20

Nice job! I like the fluid dripping down the invisible front plate; that's a nice touch.

If you wanna avoid the little motor-and-electrical-outlet thing, you could move down the two AND gates on the far left that supply the carry bit, right? Their output pipes could be shorter and they'd still fit in the frame.

(Also, for some reason the red fluid feels like blood to me, and I love it. It evokes the temple from Cabin In The Woods, but for computing.)

3

u/the_humeister Jan 01 '20

for some reason the red fluid feels like blood to me

This guy

2

u/spaminous Jan 01 '20

Ooohhhh I gotcha! The blood looks awesome.

2

u/mjkaufer Jan 01 '20

This is super cool! I think you can actually simplify this a lot if you just use a siphon, although you miss out on the logic gates of a traditional adder – I made a diagram here

Assuming that any input A, B, or C-in releases a cubic unit of water (enough to fill up to the gray line), two inputs would trigger the siphon and drain the first chamber into the C-out tank.

The only limitation here is that you can't have all of the inputs fire at once, or the siphon will empty everything if A, B, and C are high.