Balanced ternary: Lesson 1: basics

Overview:

Balanced ternary.  The smallest balanced base number.  What is a balanced base number? well lets take a look at balanced ternary's values. like regular ternary, there are three:

+| positive
0| ground
-| negative
 

Odd huh? that list is in order by the way.  Zero really is the middle value.  After all, it is a balanced base number.

lets count from -4 to +4: 

-- = -4
-0 = -3
-+ = -2
0- = -1
00 =  0
0+ =  1
+- =  2
+0 =  3
++ =  4

Mirror effect:

-- = -4
++ = +4

+0- =  8
-0+ = -8

Notice that if you replace the positive and negative values in +0- (8) you get -0+ (-8)

Some terminology:

trit: a single balanced ternary digit. 
SBTCVM: a Balanced ternary virtual machine project programmed primarily in python.
Max positive Integer (MPI): the maximum positive value a series of trits can represent. Its important to note, this is DIFFERENT to the number of combinations of trits.

Equations: 

MPI: where X is the length of the series of trits, 
and M is the MPI
(((3^x)-1)/2)=M

Number of combinations per series of trits:
where X is the length of the series of trits, 
and N is the Number of combinations per series of trits.
(3^X)=N