I don’t remember where I read this last week, but the idea if binary candles is brilliant. You can represent any age up to 127 with seven candles! If you understand binary, you already know what to do.

Each candle reprsents a number. Just light the candles for numbers that add up to the age you want to represent.

To label the candles, the first one on the right is 1. The next is 2. Then you just keep doubling, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64.

    ()      ()
||  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||
||  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||
||  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||

64  32  16   8   4   2   1

In the above illustration, we represent the age 40.

        ()      ()  ()  ()
||  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||
||  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||
||  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||  ||

64  32  16   8   4   2   1

This one is 23. You get the idea. And, yes, you can leave off the candles on the left if they aren’t lit.

This is how computers reprsent numbers, as “bits” (binary digits) that can be on or off. Bits are typically stored as transistors acting like switches (on or off) or storing a charge on a tiny capacitor to represent a one, a lit candle. When transmitting data the bits may be represented as different voltages or other signal level schemes.