Group Actions
Engagement
  • Author Author: jlucas
  • Date Created: Date Created
  • Views 1215 views
  • Likes 6 likes
  • Comments 4 comments
Related
Recommended

Grand Digital Computer Race proves advanced mathematics is child's play with micro:bit

jlucas

A nine-year old student successfully wrote a program to calculate a centuries-old mathematical sequence in a matter of seconds on the BBC micro:bit, beating out eight decades of advanced computer technology with simple modern coding skills.

The Grand Digital Computer Race challenged seven computers and one calculator to find as many numbers in the Fibonacci sequence as possible within fifteen seconds. Used in mathematics for centuries, the Fibonacci sequence is a series of numbers in which each number is the sum of the two numbers that preceded it.

Using a BBC micro:bit, nine year-old coding student Connie, of Christ The Sower Ecumenical Primary School in Milton Keynes, wrote a program which found 6843 numbers in the allotted time.

The devices represented the evolution of computer technology over the past century, with other devices including an iPhone 6s, a calculator and the 1951 Harwell Dekatron/Witch - the world's oldest working digital computer. The iPhone managed to find just four numbers in the allotted time, using Siri voice command and response. The Harwell Dekatron found only three - the slowest performance in the group.

Other devices included a 1940s Facit calculator, a 1965 PDP-8, a 1977 Apple II, a 1981 BBC Micro and a 1998 Windows 98. The event was held at the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park, and run primarily by volunteers who had personally restored the older devices to allow them to enter the race, which was the first of its kind to feature devices from such a broad span of time.

Museum trustee and race starter Kevin Murrell predicted that the event would be the first of many to feature restored computers from history. "We have many other original working computers that could enter the race to demonstrate the advance of computing" he said. "Our youngest competitor wrote the program herself with a BBC micro:bit - a fantastic achievement and an inspiration for young computer scientists everywhere.

The full results of the 2018 Grand Digital Race:

  • BBC micro:bit (6843 numbers calculated in 15 seconds)
  • Windows 98 (1477)
  • 1981 BBC Micro (70)
  • 1977 Apple II (38)
  • 1965 PDP-8 (16)
  • Facit Caculator (7)
  • iPhone 6s (4)
  • 1951 Harwell Dekatron/Witch (3)

 

  • in reply to jlucas

    Hello John,

     

    Thanks for your response - it's actually quite an interesting problem - I hadn't really considered that the Fibonacci series, being additive, would grow into such big numbers so soon. I tried it in MATLAB first and it can do 10k numbers apparently instantly but after 2000 or so they are all just 'inf'.

     

    I used Maple to get the result above.

     

    MK

  • in reply to michaelkellett

    Hi Michael

     

    Thanks for the feedback. I think the National Museum of Computing was probably just using this event to highlight the different methods used through the past century to calculate mathematical equations, rather than implying a direct comparison in performance or sophistication. Perhaps the wording could have been clearer, I was working from an existing press release here so a lot of the language is just drawn from that - Farnell element14 wasn't directly involved with this initiative beyond our pre-existing partnership with micro:bit.

     

    Including the code the student used is a good idea. Again, this wasn't included in the source material I was provided but clearly you figured it out pretty easily so I'll make a note to request those details if we run similar stories in future.

  • Words fail me - this is SO stupid.

     

    Sure, it's a good thing that the kid can write a programme (maybe a pretty cool one - see below)

     

    But to imply that this was somehow beating or out-performing an iPhone finding the sequence by being asked questions in voice via Siri shows a complete lack of comprehension of the tasks actually being performed by the two computers involved, without even starting on the difference in complexity of the software.

     

    Show me a 9 year old that can 'code' Siri - that would  justify the hyberbole.

     

    Actually, showing the kid's code for computing the Fibonnaci sequence would be a start, because then you could have shown us how she handles

     

    f(6843) =

     

    566157452500091272503546573634819425662119427554363673161828300411453885991202201638893753993748348080503450938427041308691103072107100685029970157633680608997

    92326002403710240253807240269375666937820209178229688254648682370273675613228535184500142822041321994438077209926401405475625696110569315472481220618179701588174111648571841134591105346987675846571700799359054344

    20474176633797837349777702225615186659317256416866008102341926820454741558999821706468466754763789220293953296485007749177046714974629353190982540338437908020738563294704561049555336914325406334106624628138291387

    59204832350497969424944101302506569533588421145065184736476470054445398410270125814850014229455282624014858511532852957915130121292621827485030126961512068116538214432381828033864307802079020905097176940176888402

    61181184659225398837590449682144238628447298054154651405329640163672417512206278122388275035051261591779656695037843535483639822366405944967446625368658581082011532660534678861430692214938007078981975367796614615

    03146680196451901506225687988794249851840505391703407157538118194341369238562398389892897333685516346348029658241479734224229589593844268634722683520375724402284613158185987451372611839163335615026288348421314119

    8277642526842301694344176640362247552945141327963593127420651068410052000649951750644723903947187979524714710039351946194070273805004709509234124542524489953879205057864989335908073521704443363332766636410717762,

     

     

     

    MK

  • Never underestimate the power of a 9-year old with a BBC micro:bit!  When you make programming simple, you can do more in less time.

    Gene