Before we go on i would like to answer the one question that has probably already gone through your mind,

"How in the world do you read this clock?"

Well, for this i would like to give you a short introduction to the binary system.

We are all familiar to the decimal System, where each digit can have 10 different states, ranging from 0 to 9. In binary each digit can only have two states, either 1 or 0 that's why you can use something as simple as an led to display a binary number.

To display numbers that are grater than 9 in decimal, we add more digits. Each digit comes with a certain multiplier. The first digit from the right comes with a multiplier of 1 the next one is 10 and the next one is 100. With each new digit the multiplier is ten times as big as the one of the digit before. So we know that the number two placed one digit to the left, represents the number 20. While two digits to the left, it represents 200.

In the binary system each digit also comes with a multiplier. However, as each digit can only have two different states, each new multiplier is two times as big as the previous one. Oh and by the way, binary digits are called Bits. So let's take a look at our first example, if we place a 1 at the lowest position it is a simple 1, but if we place it on the next higher position, where our multiplier is 2, it represents the number 2 in binary.

How about the slightly more tricky example on the bottom of the picture. The third and the first bits are on. To get the decimal number that is represented here, we simply add the values of the two bits. So 4 * 1 + 1*1 or 4+1 gives us the number 5.

8 bits are referred to as a byte, so let's see what number we get if we fill a whole byte with ones. 1+2+4+8+16+32+64+128 that is 255 which is the highest value a single byte can have.

By the way, while in the decimal system the digit with the highest multiplier always comes first, you have two ways of writing a number down in binary. Those two methods are called least significant byte first (LSB) and most significant byte first (MSB). If you want to read a binary number, you have to know which of the two formats is used. As it is closer to the decimal system, our binary clock uses the MSB variant.

Lets get back to our real world example. As highlighted in the sixth picture, our clock has 4 bits to display the hour. Than we have 6 bits for the minute and also 6 bits for the second. Further more we have a single am/pm bit.

All right, tell me what time it is in the 6th picture, than skip to the last one . . ....

in the hour section we have 2+1 which is 3 and the pm bit is on so it is evening. Next up the minute 32+8, that is 40. For the seconds we have 8+4+2 which is 14. So it is 3:40:14 pm or 15:40:14.

Congratulations, you just learned to read a binary clock. Of course it takes some getting used to and in the beginning you will have to add the numbers together, every time you want to know what time it is, but similar to an analog clock without a dial, you get used to the LED's patterns over time.

And that is part of what this project is all about, taking something as abstract as to the binary system into the real world and getting to know it better.