Today the class looked at alternative number systems and function solving. The students started by learning about how the binary system works. They connected this to the ideas of clocks and analyzed how the individual digit places changes behavior depending on the base number of the number system. They also looked at the way remainders play into individual digits. Then the class analyzed solving arithmetic in other number systems, finding it more efficient to then convert an answer rather than convert the problem from the start. Students then explored the way number conversions through linear functions occur, looking at different algorithms for checking what the terms of the function are. The students determined that the most efficient method for solving for the coefficients revolved around using 0 and 1 to determine the constants that are added or subtracted in the equation vs the multiplication coefficient. They then practiced this while using a letter cipher to make word codes using linear functions. What students found is that again A (representing 0) and B (representing 1) were the most efficient pair to use in an algorithm to solve the letter cipher. They also explored that by looking at letters as a numbering system, they act the same as numbers with a base of 26.