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Domino Logic...Gates watch!

youtube.com — Who needs a boring textbook to explain the principles behind logic gates, when you have...dominoes!

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MrBabyMan 49 days ago, made popular 49 days ago

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Jorry7, on 07/19/2008, -14/+5(underneath)

FeepingCreature (3 hours ago)

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Logically speaking, since every computation requires some sort of transition, and since the only transition _available_ in this system is standing to fallen, and since the amount of dominos is finite, so is the amount of computation that can be done. Closely limited, in fact; a flip-flop would probably be unfeasible.
- GhettoHmbrglr, on 07/19/2008, -0/+1I feel really stupid now..
- mrinsanity, on 07/19/2008, -2/+1INCONCEIVABLE!
- john2kx, on 07/19/2008, -0/+1A flip-flop would certainly be feasible - in fact, we already saw the concept in the AND gate that he demonstrated.
  Let there be 2 inputs - Data and the clock, and one output.
  Set up the dominoes like the AND gate, push the "data" row of dominoes down so that it's waiting for the clock row to be pushed to continue.
  Then, when the clock row of dominoes is pushed down, the "data" row can continue on.
  
  Granted, you would have to make the assumption that the data is waiting for the clock.. and it's only a one-time use FF, of course. :)
  - macrymble, on 07/20/2008, -0/+1That sounds more like a latch to me.
    
    If I understood him correctly, FeepingCreature was saying that the problem with creating a flip-flop is the clock signal. If you say that a standing domino represents a 1 and a fallen domino represents a 0, it's simple to make a high-low transition but infeasible to make a low-high transition. Without this, you can't have more than a single clock cycle. Therefore, you can have no flip-flop
- sanman, on 07/20/2008, -0/+1At least we'll have something to fall back on, if a giant solar flare burns out all our electronics
daniking, on 07/19/2008, -1/+63This should be presented to kids in elementary school. I remember setting up dominoes from time to time, but never anything beneficial.

Groups of 3... race to create the most working logic gates in one hour. Winners get candy. Learning IS fun.
- dkapuchino, on 07/19/2008, -6/+4Teaching with candy. That should help us fight obesity.
  - Retrospekt, on 07/19/2008, -1/+7I'd be happier with slightly fatter smart americans then slightly skinnier idiot americans.
  - ijacker, on 07/19/2008, -1/+5my dad does exactly that
    the result? fat kids who are good @ science
  - dkapuchino, on 07/20/2008, -2/+3yet most of america are fat idiots.
skewl, on 07/19/2008, -7/+9That's quite ingenious... a good way to put something so confusing!!!!!!!
- john2kx, on 07/19/2008, -0/+20Is it confusing, though? I've seen 9 year olds grasp the concept.
  
  For each gate, you have 2 inputs and one output.
  For an AND gate, both inputs need to be true for the output to be true, else, the output is false.
  For an OR gate, only one input needs to be true (but it's ok if both are true) for the output to be true.
  For an XOR gate, only one input must be true (NOT both, and NOT none) for the output to be true.
  
  That's seriously it. Nothing more.
  - neFariou5, on 07/20/2008, -0/+3The easiest way to learn this is programming IMO
- Takuro, on 07/24/2008, -0/+1Well, somehow in over a full year of computer science and basic circuit design in my college, they never really explained the concepts too clearly. All I can say is thanks for finally conveying the idea of logic gates in a simple way. I think in 2 minutes I learned more than I would typically in a 2 hour class from any of my professors. :P
NexAngelus, on 07/19/2008, -13/+0Can I has Domino computer plz. kthxbye
- dkapuchino, on 07/19/2008, -0/+1That better be lol code.
- robertnealan, on 07/19/2008, -0/+1And it was said that lolcats would burn. And so it was.
- NexAngelus, on 07/20/2008, -2/+0Yea, it was an attempt in lolcode taken from memory in a rush. After looking it up it should have read something like:
  
  hai
  can has stdio
  visible "Can I has Domino computer plz"
  kthxbye
  
  Sheesh, why do I know this stuff???
ChuqAU, on 07/19/2008, -1/+111I'd like to see him build a NOT gate :)
- vegr, on 07/19/2008, -14/+0Wouldn't that just be a dead end?
  - NathanielJ, on 07/19/2008, -0/+3I foresee vegr's comment ending up on FailBlog.
- arjie, on 07/19/2008, -1/+461 XOR 1 = 0
  1 XOR 0 = 1
  0 XOR 1 = 1
  0 XOR 0 = 1
  
  If 1 is fallen, and 0 is standing, then construct a XOR gate and always hit the second one when beginning calculation. There you go, NOT gate.
  - gkskillz, on 07/19/2008, -1/+46I think you meant, 0 XOR 0 = 0, but I'm not going to bury you since you are correct about the NOT gate.
- Red1000, on 07/19/2008, -1/+5Crap, you beat me to it!
- Arngautr, on 07/19/2008, -1/+5Adding a clock and one gate per clock 'tick' would make this work. But that may be considered cheating.
  - MindStalker, on 07/20/2008, -2/+4not really, all xor gates require some sorta clock or input voltage. Not cheating.
- john2kx, on 07/19/2008, -1/+2That's trivial if you use mixed logic. :)
- brianpeiris, on 07/20/2008, -2/+1I cheated.
  Phun - Domino/"Rube Goldberg" NOT Gate:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDbIqSuWq04
- InfiniteNothing, on 07/20/2008, -2/+1I don't think the XOR gate worked if you didn't hit them at the same time. I'm not sure how you implement clock cycles with dominos that never get back up
- bobangitanov2, on 07/20/2008, -1/+1since there is a synchronization issue, there can NEVER be a NOT gate.
  If you define the time it's supposed to flip. Then all you have to do is XOR the input with a "1". Useless for running a program.
cutekelvins, on 07/19/2008, -11/+6MrBabyMan I got your logic.
- MrBobyMan, on 07/19/2008, -15/+1Me too.
  - vat0r, on 07/19/2008, -2/+2I see what you did there.
  - MrBobyMan, on 07/20/2008, -4/+1Lol, I love how people automatically bury me when they see my handle.
- Duncster, on 07/19/2008, -1/+10Yeah... post something he finds on Reddit.
smoorman1024, on 07/19/2008, -1/+11Very interesting but everything can only go from up to down. Can anyone think of a practical way to build a nand or a nor?
- Arngautr, on 07/19/2008, -0/+2I can think of a way to make a nor that works 75% of the time! ... hmmm
- gravityPersists, on 07/19/2008, -1/+5A nand and nor gate would require a domino to fall over without an input, so that's not really possible
  - NathanielJ, on 07/19/2008, -0/+5Just kick the table.
  - aadnk, on 07/19/2008, -0/+4You can construct a NOT-gate by using the Xor-gate (as mentioned by arjie above):
    In 1: In 2: Out:
    0 Xor 0 = 0 (1)
    0 Xor 1 = 1 (2)
    1 Xor 0 = 1 (3)
    1 Xor 1 = 0 (4)
    
    If you look at (2) and (4), Xor operates just like the Not-gate on Input 1. Thus, to make Not, you just have to Xor the value with one, supplied from the initial domino (as it's trivial to replicate a domino fall/signal).
- john2kx, on 07/19/2008, -0/+5Simple - used mixed logic.
  Build a regular AND or OR gate, operate as normal, and if the output dominoes fall, consider the output false, and if they're still standing, consider the output true.
B1663r, on 07/19/2008, -7/+18But will it run Linux?
- iXam, on 07/20/2008, -0/+1Given enough bricks, yes.
HumanGlitch, on 07/19/2008, -10/+5Dominoes pizza derived its name from dominoes like these seen in the video.
- TheyHate, on 07/19/2008, -0/+4then they lost everyone's respect when they released that Oreo Pizza to the public
  - MrBobyMan, on 07/19/2008, -10/+2Wait for it...Waaait for it...
    
    Om non nom om mon nom
  - sadsadrobot, on 07/19/2008, -1/+1Hey everyone this man is a fake! Look at the fake!
XeN0cidE, on 07/19/2008, -14/+38Someone stole this from Reddit.
I wonder who?
- Goblin, on 07/19/2008, -14/+8SO ***** WHAT?
  
  I don't go to reddit. Reddit and Digg do the same job, skim interesting content from other sites to present to the users, who gives a crap if the Digg submitter (who, BTW, I also don't give a crap about) saw it first on Reddit? Great, I get to see something interesting I wouldn't have otherwise.
- halfdirt, on 07/19/2008, -3/+12Almost all of us don't care about any submitter on this site, not even a little bit.
topgun553, on 07/19/2008, -24/+47My Digg Logic:
(Do I Like the Article/Video) & (is Not From MrBabyMan) = dugg

This Video:
1 & 0 = buried
- webkami, on 07/19/2008, -1/+21Sadly, most diggers use OR gate on this one.
- jull1234, on 07/19/2008, -0/+4err warning: assignment inside conditional
- spammishking, on 07/19/2008, -0/+17Or some of us don't even realize who posted it till we are subjected to the endless tirades of I hate Mr Babyman complainers
- Oxidizer, on 07/20/2008, -0/+2if (Do I Like the Article/Video) and (is Not From MrBabyMan) return a bool then under your logic they will be cast to an int then the & will give you another int which you will then cast to a bool again.
  Your logic works but you are better off using && insted of &.
- Stochio, on 07/22/2008, -2/+1I could give a f*ck.
chrisbosh123, on 07/19/2008, -19/+1music was gay
- mrinsanity, on 07/19/2008, -7/+3YOUR'E gay.
  
  BURNED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
digglet08, on 07/19/2008, -16/+4Ugh, boring.

And really, "the music was gay"?
- NathanielJ, on 07/19/2008, -0/+3Yeah, your comment was infinitely more insightful than "music was gay".
  - digglet08, on 07/19/2008, -1/+0Touche. But I honestly thought it was uninteresting, but thats just me. I laughed when I saw someone write that the music was gay, so I decided that it should be addressed. Kinda lazy post.
- john2kx, on 07/19/2008, -0/+2Ironic that as you were typing "Ugh, boring." millions of transistors in your computer were sending electricity through those logic gates.
lukemit, on 07/19/2008, -5/+17I guess I'm not nerdy... ah hem... I mean "cool" enough to get it...
- NightRiderkami, on 07/19/2008, -0/+3me neither, help O smart ones?
- NeonGod, on 07/19/2008, -0/+7http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic_gate
- topbob, on 07/20/2008, -1/+3raise your hand if you have no idea what just happened, even after reading the above link
- NeonGod, on 07/20/2008, -0/+7This is one of those submissions that is targeted for the geeks. If you're not a CompSci or Engineering grad, move along and don't feel bad. You're not stupid if it doesn't make sense. It's for us and it's fuggin awesome (though I must say that guy has too much time on his hands) :)
Furkle, on 07/19/2008, -7/+1Correct me if I'm wrong wasn't the second one really more of a nested if? He had to hit them in the correct order or it didn't work.
- rebotfc, on 07/19/2008, -0/+2watch it again, if he changed the order it still woulda worked.
  - Furkle, on 07/20/2008, -1/+1No, he tried it in the alternative order and it didn't work, he had to reset and do it the other way.
- NathanielJ, on 07/19/2008, -0/+2He just hit them multiple times to show that it worked either way. Hence, it's an OR gate like it said.
  - Furkle, on 07/20/2008, -1/+1Yay for non thorough reading, I said the second one, I.E. the and not the or.
  - NathanielJ, on 07/20/2008, -0/+1@Furkle - Maybe can the attitude, kk? I assumed you meant the OR gate since it's the only one that he actually fully did twice.
    
    Of course it would work the other way, he only showed the second configuration all the way through because it was CLEAR it would work the other way. The "first time" that he tried it he only hit the left input, he didn't hit the right input, but the right input was now blocked, so of course it would have worked. He only showed the right then left ordering because it was less clear that it would work.
netneutrality, on 07/19/2008, -1/+6Super creative! If only it worked more than once, I could see primitive programs running on that!
Natron9, on 07/19/2008, -2/+2Pretty clever and simple
alexkim804, on 07/19/2008, -6/+8damn, i dugg this before noticing it was from mrbabyman
Futurejunior, on 07/19/2008, -1/+8From the description "Replacement for TTL and CMOS."
Hilarious
Pinkertinkle, on 07/19/2008, -15/+28MrBabySpam
borez, on 07/19/2008, -1/+4Now construct a Cray XT5 in a similar fashion
iKomplex, on 07/19/2008, -15/+3This is so lame it's not even funny.
Ardentfrost, on 07/19/2008, -1/+6In for 4 bit adder!
seans9, on 07/19/2008, -8/+2I want my 3 minutes back
kd1s, on 07/19/2008, -4/+1I'd like to see him do a NOT gate with dominoes.
- john2kx, on 07/19/2008, -0/+1Easy. Use mixed logic.
mysticalnegro, on 07/19/2008, -3/+0or you can space the domino's apart so they dont hit each other......
ControlcChris, on 07/19/2008, -6/+2wtf?
- plopper, on 07/19/2008, -2/+2F U!
jull1234, on 07/19/2008, -1/+7the XOR was positively riveting.
- RickHavoc, on 07/20/2008, -1/+1Unfortunately the XOR gate doesn't work for the case where both inputs are zero, i.e. not falling.
im2emo4myshrt, on 07/19/2008, -2/+13I dugg because he moved his hands so fast!
disrupter, on 07/19/2008, -2/+4Maybe if I was Carlton Banks this would be darn interesting.
- NathanielJ, on 07/19/2008, -0/+5It's not unusual to have fun with dominoes.
smurfsahoy, on 07/19/2008, -1/+2You could easily do any logic gate if you have two colors of dominoes. Each input line and each output line has a white and a black row right next to one another, and one of the rows and one of the rows only is always falling when the logic proceeds in or out of the given gate. It would make all of the ones he did significantly more complicated, but it allows NOT, NAND, NOR, etc. All the things he didn't show.
- smurfsahoy, on 07/19/2008, -0/+1http://img139.imageshack.us/my.php?image=orgateea0 ... Here is my OR gate with two color lines.
  
  The colored "or" and "and" in the diagram represent the OR and AND gates of the type shown in this video above. Everything in the black box overall is my revised OR gate. The point where one line crosses over another would just be over a domino bridge high enough and/or connected fully across so that the crossing lines are independent.
- john2kx, on 07/19/2008, -0/+1What's the point of using different colored dominoes? Do we have different colored electricity? Just use mixed logic, and all those gates you mentioned are easily done.
  - smurfsahoy, on 07/20/2008, -0/+1Maybe, but I can't think of how. You need to have certain combinations of logical operators in order to cover all possible expressions. For instance, AND, OR, and NOT. Or NAND and NOR. I think AND, OR, and NOR can be used too. In the video, he does not give us a set of operators that can be combined to create everything, though.
    
    So if you can show us how to do a NOT or a NOR using only one line of dominoes for each input, my idea is unnecessary. Or if you can make dominoes fall down without triggering anything. Otherwise my solution is indeed useful.
  - john2kx, on 07/20/2008, -0/+1It's simple. Just set up a regular OR or AND gate, set the outputs to "active low", and voila - you now have a NOR or NAND gate.
    
    Normally, high voltage (fallen dominoes), means true.. This is "active high". However, we can just as easily declare an input or output "active low", meaning that low voltage indicates the "true" state. (Standing dominoes = true) This is called mixed logic.
    
    http://plaza.ufl.edu/john2kx/pics/mixedlogicexampl ...
    
    For example, look at the NAND. If A and B are both false, the result on the other side of the AND gate is false, but since the output is active low, Z(L) is true!
    If A and B are both true, the result of the AND is true, but true doesn't agree with Z(L), so it's false.
halfdirt, on 07/19/2008, -1/+11Now make a dominoes Turing Machine!
- 5plic3r, on 07/20/2008, -0/+2With one-time-use gates?
  - halfdirt, on 07/22/2008, -0/+1I bet you could do it in a frictionless zero gravity environment!
Addict13, on 07/19/2008, -2/+2Genius
theguesser10, on 07/19/2008, -6/+1Is there a subliminal message in here? All I saw in those pictures were dicks. Like, man dicks.
- Pfkninenines, on 07/21/2008, -0/+2Yeah, the subliminal message is: You are gay. Or are a girl.
  - Saad85, on 07/22/2008, -0/+1dude, this is the internet. he's gay.
andy2125, on 07/19/2008, -2/+0we need memory, who's making the flip flop out of dominos?
Pusod, on 07/19/2008, -6/+1Damn dude! Edit this down to size! We dont want to see you build the damn thing! ENTERTAIN US NOW BITCH!
- HairyFotr, on 07/19/2008, -1/+2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_span
wutimatang, on 07/19/2008, -4/+1That guy fails at dominoes...
- eengineer, on 07/20/2008, -0/+0I think he wins.
moolcool, on 07/19/2008, -0/+3I hope amazon hasnt sold out of the DDL cookbook (domino domino logic)
0akley, on 07/19/2008, -2/+3who'd have thought a it would be a skinny white guy
santixar, on 07/19/2008, -0/+4Great. Waiting for synchronic counters.
batmanz, on 07/19/2008, -3/+17But can it run Crysis?
pak314, on 07/19/2008, -0/+5Actually there is such a thing as Domino Logic Gates.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domino_logic
FeargusMcDuff, on 07/19/2008, -0/+3Can anyone figure out a nand gate?
- ajocksch, on 07/19/2008, -1/+3Or a NOT gate.... it only falls if you... don't... push it over?
- eengineer, on 07/20/2008, -0/+0Again, mixed logic for the NOT and the AND is existing. Pretty much gold from there.
matroosje, on 07/19/2008, -0/+4Dugg for Mozart
Paranoidmarvin, on 07/19/2008, -0/+3That was actually quite clever
TsuruchiBrian, on 07/19/2008, -0/+4The problem with domino gates is the dominoes can't get back up.

This is fine for or gates and and gates because for these gates you can model the problem as merely requiring some threshhold for knowing when it is time to trigger the output (any inputs triggered or all of them)

For the Xor gate it appeared that both inputs had to be triggered at precise times to cause the 1^1=0 result. If you timed it wrong, the answer would be 1^0 = 1 but then that second input propagates and you find out it's actually 1^1=1 (because you can't turn the output back into a 0).
- Alexio, on 07/19/2008, -0/+5What about setting up these logic gates with a not too powerful spring attached to each domino, which would allow them to self-righten after each cycle? Hopefully, gravity would still have enough force for the end output to make it. Then we would see domino turing complete machines indeed. Now to figure out how to make dynamic memory...
ryleyleckie, on 07/19/2008, -6/+4this was boring
VinnieDaMac, on 07/19/2008, -0/+9Creativity, but extremely boring watching someone set up dominoes.
pauls88, on 07/19/2008, -5/+3Help Support The Bury The Baby Campaign!
DeFex, on 07/19/2008, -1/+5A few more boxes of dominoes and you have a celeron.

I want domino DSP!
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