the machine lab

Change the width, change the world

Every page so far runs the machine's default word: six trits. That is a design choice, not a law of nature — the same notation, arithmetic, and wrap ring respect any width you give them. Pick a width and watch the number system reshape.

states 729 · range ±364

word dial

6 trits · set each switch to - 0 +

243

reads000+++9 +3 +1 =13

number ring

000+++13

729 states · wraps at the seam

what a 6-trit word can hold

6 trits get 729 states — 1× the machine's default 729. Every value from −364 to 364 has exactly one spelling:

zero0000000exactly one spelling

one100000+units trit

top of the ring364++++++all +

bottom of the ring-364------all -

a hundred1000++-0+fits

the wrap, on a word this size

Type any integer — inside or outside the ring. The wrap is the same arithmetic the machine performs on every result.

→ ring value

200 → 200+-+++-

200 sits inside the ring — nothing to wrap.

count to the top of this ring

0 .. 364

13 000+++

Watch how much farther 6 more trits take you than 6: the ring holds 729 values up here, 729 on the machine's default word.

assemble & run at 6 trits

the same source runs against the selected word — the wrap lives where the ring says

compare two widths

one program, two rings — each wraps at its own edge

The starter walks Fibonacci until the next term wraps — it has no literals, so every width runs it. The output streams diverge exactly where the two rings differ.

width Awidth B

The program is identical; only the ring changed. The wider ring runs further before the wrap — a difference of 3159 values from zero.