So, the Volvo turns 63 - why is that noteworthy, and where the heck did 63 come from? Well, it's rather interesting actually, depending on how you think about it. The mileage on the Volvo just turned 111,111. That in itself is a neat milestone. The number 63 comes from the fact that in binary 111111 is equal to 63 (in decimal - or base 10 - our usual number system). And what makes this milestone even more significant is that the Volvo attained said mileage on New Year's Day 2011, or 1/1/11. Now, that's a lot of 1s!
One can have some fun with this, I found. For example, my odometer reads 100,111! I'm over a hundred thousand miles - jeez! And my Grandmother, who just celebrated her 90th birthday in fine fashion, has flipped the odometer all the way to 1,011,010 - over a million miles! Cosmo, on the other hand, just turned 7, and his odometer is only at 111. Must be the little legs.
If you'd like to find out your "odometer" reading you can use the neat site wolfram|alpha. Just type in: convert [your age here] decimal to binary and hit the equals button to the right. Look for the answer where it says Result and keep those wheels turning.