Let's Get Technical

摘要

My three-year-old daughter recently became fascinated by a small hand-held electronic toy that spins a disk round and round very quickly (see Figure 1). Light emitting diodes (LEDs)mounted on the edge of the disk turn on and off in all sorts of interesting patterns. Those familiar with my background in electronics will recognize that I cannot stand idly by, watching this S10.00 toy flash its lights at me without beginning to think about how to do it myself. So, I began studying it when my daughter was not looking. The child in me enjoys watching it anyways, so staring at it for long periods of time was not a problem. Well, I began to see patterns. This was not difficult, since the toy was designed to create lots of different patterns. But when I say "I began to see patterns," I am saying I began to see how the patterns were being created.