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Digital Literacy Computer Basics Computer Basics Binary

I don't understand binary number

00000001000

2 Answers

Podrig Leoghain
Podrig Leoghain
5,094 Points

A good way of thinking about binary systems is by thinking about an abacus that has only one bead on each row.

  1. So, counting from the right we start with 00000000 which is 0,
  2. then 00000001 which is 1.
  3. Now we put the second row's bead 'on' and switch the first row's bead back to 'off' = 00000010. This = 2.
  4. Flip the first bead back on to count to 4 (00000011)
  5. Same idea as 1, we switch on the next row, and switch off all other rows (this is like going from, say, 999 to 1000 in decimal. You flip on the 1 in the thousands column, but reset all other columns to 0). And so on...

A great resource is Harvard's CS50 lecture 0 which is on youtube. David J Malan is, out of all lecturer's I've seen on whatever subject, absolutely the best at explaining things simply whilst keeping it interesting.

thanks

Podrig Leoghain
Podrig Leoghain
5,094 Points

Absolutely delighted to be of help!