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Digital Literacy

3 Answers

Jeff Muday
MOD
Jeff Muday
Treehouse Moderator 28,716 Points

Yeah... this can be a little confusing. In this example, you are converting binary (base-2) to decimal (base-10). Each position of the binary number represents a power of two from (important to know) RIGHT TO LEFT. Each position from right to left represents zero or a power of two. The first position is 2^0 = 1, the second position is 2^1 = 2, the third postion is 2^2 = 4, the fourth position is 2^3 = 8, the fifth position is 2^4 = 16 and so, and so on.

In your case, positions 1 and 3 have a one there, all the rest are zeros.

2^1 + 2^3 = 2 + 8 = 10

I hope this makes sense

Jeff Muday
MOD
Jeff Muday
Treehouse Moderator 28,716 Points

Charlie's method works well and is another way to think through binary->decimal and decimal->binary conversion.

As you master these skills, you begin the journey to becoming one of the "elite" computer literati and this joke will make perfect sense-- "There are 10 types of people in this world, those that understand binary, and those that don't" ;-)

Good luck with your studies, may the math be with you!

I can only do this on paper!! Jeff is very correct so please read his first to fully understand. Try writing the numbers down like I have below, then add the binary code underneath and finally add it up

126 64 32 16 8 4 2 1

0 - 0 - 0 - 0 1 0 - 1 0

so the 8 has a 1 underneath and so does the 2. This equals 8 + 2 which is 10

I can't seem to get them to line up but try writing it down on paper.