binary

Posted by: Margaret Rouse (sourced from https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/binary, 21/06/2018)

Binary describes a numbering scheme in which there are only two possible values for each digit: 0 and 1. The term also refers to any digital encoding/decoding system in which there are exactly two possible states. In digital data memory, storage, processing, and communications, the 0 and 1 values are sometimes called "low" and "high," respectively.

A bit (short for binary digit) is the smallest unit of data on a computer; each bit has a single value of either 1 or 0. Executable (ready-to-run) programs are often identified as binary files and given a file name extension of ".bin.” Programmers often call executable files binaries.

Binary numbers look strange when they are written out directly. This is because the digits' weight increases by powers of 2, rather than by powers of 10. In a digital numeral, the digit furthest to the right is the "ones" digit; the next digit to the left is the "twos" digit; next comes the "fours" digit, then the "eights" digit, then the "16s" digit, then the "32s" digit, and so on. The decimal equivalent of a binary number can be found by summing all the digits. For example, the binary 10101 is equivalent to the decimal 1 + 4 + 16 = 21:

Representing words using binary

Letters can be represented using binary. You can use a conversion table to find the binary code for almost any letter or character you can type on your computer and many more.

Activities...

1. Use a binary translator to decode the text on the home page.

2. Write your name and age using binary. What is the relationship between binary values and letters of the alphabet?

3. Look at the question you discovered in the first activity above. What terms in the question might you need to understand and define to be able to answer the question well? Do you think this question relates only to computing or could it be considered in a wider context? Respond to the text translated in the first activity above.