Minecraft is a video game where you can build things in the world. It’s a lot like Lego for video games. According to this article (H/T Toms Hardware) a 16 year old player named MaxSGB has created a working scientific calculator.
Check out this video. Basically he made a mechanical computer out of blocks. Awesome!
From the article:
The video itself explains that its overall size is more than 5 million cubic meters — just over 250 x 250 x 100 blocks. It provides 14 functions, BCD input, 2 BCD-to-binary decoders, 3 binary-to-BCD decoders, and 6 rapid BCD adders and subtractors. It also contains floor after floor of live decoders for quick conversions, a 20 bit (output) multiplier, 10 bit divider, a memory bank and additional circuitry for the graphing function.
Here are some thoughts about it.
- This must have taken a long time to make.
- This was not done for a grade. It was passion driven.
- Just off the top of my head he learned about math, logic, geometry, spacial relationships, project management, coding, and troubleshooting. These are all valuable 21st century skills.
- Some people dismiss video games as not a useful teaching tool.
