Summary
Highlights
Computers operate using 1s and 0s, though most users don't directly interact with them. These binary digits are fundamental to how computers function internally.
Inside a computer, information is carried through electric wires and circuits. A single wire can be either ON or OFF, representing a YES/NO, TRUE/FALSE, or 1/0. This on/off state of a single wire is called a bit, the smallest piece of information a computer can store. More wires mean more bits, allowing for more complex information.
Unlike the decimal system with ten digits (0-9), the binary system uses only two digits: 0 and 1. Each position in a binary number has a value that multiplies by two, such as 1s, 2s, 4s, 8s, and so on. Any number can be represented using only 1s and 0s.
With eight wires (bits), you can store numbers between 0 and 255. With 32 wires, you can store numbers up to over 4 billion. More bits allow for a larger range of numbers to be represented.
Text can be represented in binary by assigning a number to each letter (e.g., A=1, B=2). Any word or paragraph becomes a sequence of numbers, which are then stored as on/off electrical signals. This system is used for all text on webpages and phones.
Images and videos are composed of pixels, each with a specific color represented by numbers. A typical image contains millions of pixels, and videos display many images per second, generating a substantial amount of data, all encoded numerically.
Sound, which consists of air vibrations, can be graphically represented as a waveform. Any point on this waveform can be a number, breaking sound into a series of numbers. Higher quality sound (e.g., 32-bit audio) uses more bits, thus offering a higher range of numbers.
While users don't directly interact with 1s and 0s when writing code or creating apps, the underlying principle of binary is essential. These simple 1s and 0s and their corresponding electrical signals are the backbone for how all computers input, store, process, and output information.