Computers and the Binary System
Has anyone ever wondered what the series of 1s and 0s are when they turn on the computer? Well, the 1s and 0s are the two components of the Binary System, the number system that computers use. This number system will be used to operate the computer that will be used for the senior project. A website will be created for a company on the computer and the Binary System will help to communicate to the computer. The Binary System is the easiest and simplest number system, that is why computers use it.
Surely everyone knows how to count to ten, how to add two numbers, subtract two numbers, and even multiply and divide two numbers. Therefore when people count they follow the traditional counting of "0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11…" and so on. This is the Decimal System. In the Decimal System, numbers are written as base 10, that is every number represents a polynomial in powers of ten. The Binary System is when numbers are written in base 2. In Binary numbers, each bit holds the value of increasing powers of 2. That makes counting in binary fairly easy. Starting at 0 and going through 9, counting in decimal and Binary looks like this:
Binary Decimal Binary Decimal Binary Decimal
0000 0 0011 3 0110 6
0001 1 0100 4 0111 7
0010 2 0101 5 1000 8...