# How to teach addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of binary numbers? Are there any activities that can be recommended?

I want to make the binary class fun for my students, and I would like to apply activities to make it easier.

• Can I just check what the goal is here: is it simply for the students to be able to perform the calculations on paper on their own? Is there some other purpose for learning this? – DavidButlerUofA Nov 10 '14 at 19:47
• Thanks for answer!!! Right now the main idea is that they can make the calculation by their own. Later when they domain the subject I'll look for something where they can apply it. – Jearson Narvaez Rojas Nov 11 '14 at 0:55
• Is there anything at this question that is relevant? matheducators.stackexchange.com/questions/4367/… – DavidButlerUofA Nov 12 '14 at 5:33
• The standard 'stacking' procedure works correctly for adding, subtracting and multiplying numbers in any base (youtube.com/watch?v=vJ_ZEkKLZ8M). The standard 'long division' procedure is going to be difficult in base 2 (where almost every number is multi-digit) for the same reasons that it's difficult for multi digit divisors in base 10 (eg: can you work out $\frac{20328}{132}$ using the long division procedure?). – NiloCK Nov 24 '14 at 19:36
• I upvoted this question because I think division in binary is super easy to learn and understand. – Timothy Apr 16 at 2:13

One suggestion: You could you focus on binary operations on $\mathbb Z$, the integers, and then talk about the parity of your two inputs as compared with the outputs? This could lead nicely into classifying all even numbers as 0 mod 2 and all odd numbers as 1 mod 2.