101 — Binary
Learn about the binary number system, why it is important for your computer, and how you can read it. And learn some binary humor along the way! 😏
You may have already seen many of these fancy pictures in movies or blog articles where a screen is filled with lots of 0 and 1. Have you ever wondered what those 0 and 1 exactly mean? If yes, then read on!
So, what is binary?
Binary is a base-2 number system, which means that the number system only contains 2 digits — 0 and 1. Just how human beings are used to count with a certain number system (in this case it’s the decimal number systems with digits from 0 to 9), computers are used to work with a certain number system, too. For computers, it’s the binary number system that is the origin of all instructions on your computer.
And why is that? Why is binary so important for computers?
Computers aren’t as smart as human brains (yet), so they are not able to understand human language instructions. They need instructions that are easily readable for them. And as computers are just mechanical machines, it ties back to the law of physics and hardware. At the very lowest level of your machine, every instruction is represented by electrical signals. The state of these signals can either be on or off. Translated to binary, the state of “no flow of electricity” is encoded as 0, and the state of “electricity is flowing” is 1. Therefore, in the end, everything is just all 0 and 1. And with the correct encoding, these binary digits can be translated into instructions.
You may wonder why exactly a base-2 number system is chosen as the primary language for computers. The answer is simple. A base-2 number system is the basic representation of the Boolean values true and false, as well as it includes many feasible physical representations (e. g. in punched cards: hole vs. no hole, in fiber optics: light vs no light, in wireless transmission: high frequency vs. low frequency, etc.).
There are only 10 types of people in the world. Those that understand binary and those that don’t. 😎
And how does the base-2 number system work?
As the name suggests, the base-2 number system has the number 2 as its base. Each digit in a binary number system is therefore worth two times more than the last (in comparison, the decimal (base-10) number system, has 10 as a base number and each digit is worth 10 times more than the last)
2⁰→ 1
2¹→ 2
2²→ 4
2³→ 8
Putting everything together, here are a few examples of how you read binary numbers*. The number system always starts at the far most right with 2⁰ and you only add the 1 together.
Some more fun with binary numbers
If you understood the above, congrats! There are some fun ways on how binary numbers can be implemented in real-life use-cases, too. Check out the clock at the train station in St. Gallen. Can you decode the current time?
I signed up for binary 101, but it turns out it’s a level 5 course.😜
And with that, stay tuned for our next blogpost about bits & bytes! ❤
*Note that for the sake of simplicity, only 4-digit binary numbers are explained.
Resources
- The binary clock at the train station in St. Gallen: Bahnhofsuhr St. Gallen (bahnhofsuhrsg.ch)
- Some exercises for decoding binary numbers: Binary practice (umass.edu)
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