Binary

At its most general meaning, “binary” refers to any system composed of two elements. For example, a binary star system is a system in which there are two stars that orbit each other. Binary is also a numbering system that is comparable to our standard decimal system. The decimal system uses 10 digits; 0 through 9, and is referred to as a base-10 system. The binary system only has two digits, 0 and 1, so is referred to as a base-2 system.

Binary in Computing

Binary is essential to the computing industry. Computers at their lowest level perform all of their computations by manipulating the flow of electricity to indicate “on” and “off” states. These two states of electricity represent ones and zeroes to the computer, and these binary digits, or “bits,” can be strung together to represent numbers, characters, sound waves, or anything else that can be described digitally.

Because of the way the binary system works, every time you add a bit you double the capacity of the number. Picture each bit like a light switch; it can be set to either on or off. With one light switch, or bit, you only have two different states, so you can only have a 0 or a 1. If you had two switches, though, you have four possible outcomes.

• Both switches off
• Switch “A” on, switch “B” off
• Switch “A” off, switch “B” on
• Both switches on

Position matters in binary. If you count on your fingers, and you hold up any one of your fingers, you would interpret that as “one.” However, because a computer only has one “finger” at any given time, it has to count the position of the ones and zeroes in order to interpret them.

The size of the numbers the computer works with is equal to 2 to the power of the number of bits you have. However, keep in mind that the computer always starts counting at 0. So, with a 2 bit number, the computer can count up to 3; 2 times 2 is 4, but remember, the computer starts at 0.

If you have 4 bits, you can describe sixteen states; 0 through 15 (2 * 2 * 2 * 2 = 16). 5 bits gets you 32 states (2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 = 32), and so on. The most common multiple of the bit is the byte, which is 8 bits of data. A byte allows the computer to count from 0 to 255, which equals 256 states.