Arithmetic - page 4

Let's look at an alternative design for a multiplier.

The multiplier just discussed has one input and one output. We stream a series of numbers to it and read back their product.

But we could also have another kind of multiplier which has two inputs and one output. I'll call the inputs mult-a and mult-b, and the output mult-product. Thus:

   thermometer -> mult-a ; 1.8 -> mult-b ; mult-product -> etc -> etc

This multiplier has the advantage that if we wanted to multiply a group of numbers by say 24, we wouldn't have to keep re-sending the 24, we could copy "24 -> mult-a" just once and then repeatedly copy to mult-b to get a stream of mult-products.

We could design several integer dividers, say one which returns a truncated quotient, and one a rounded quotient, eg:

   sensor , 10 -> divider1 -> etc  // if sensor outputs 226, output is 22.
   sensor , 10 -> divider2 -> etc  // if sensor outputs 226, output is 23.

Or we could define an integer divider with two inputs and two outputs, a quotient and a remainder. Thus:

   53 -> divider-a ; 5 -> divider-b
   divider-quotient, divider-remainder -> printer

This prints 10 and then 3; that is, 53 divided by 5 is 10 with a remainder of 3.