Binary (1 Viewer)

[Bob.]

How do you work out simple binary code. Like how do you know what 010 stands for or 001. Ive never really got taught it and i saw it in one of the past papers and thought i should learn. any help appreciated.

 

[ianc]

Okay essentially binary is a base 2 number system (there are only 2 digits: 1 or 0). The number system we're normally used to is base 10 (10 digits from 0-9)

So the value of each digit in our normal number system is given by:

So, for example, to find the value of 9142 we put it into our table

and add it up:
9142 = 9*1000 + 1*100 + 4*10 + 2*1

Binary is just the same, but instead of powers of 10 along the top it has powers of 2 because it is a base 2 number system.

You draw up a table with the powers of 2, starting from 2⁰ on the right....like so:

Then to find the value of the binary number, you put it into the table and add it up, as before: (lets do your first example of 010)

010 = 0*8 + 1*2 + 0*1
= 2

For the binary number 11101110: (just a bigger example to get the idea)

11101110 = 1*128 + 1*64 + 1*32 + 0*16 + 1*8 + 1*4 + 1*2 + 0*1
= 238

But you don't need to worry about the massive calculations like that, I was just demonstrating. I'd be VERY surprised if binary was in there - I think that it has only popped up once in a multiple choice question.

But feel free to ask more questions if you feel you still don't understand it.

 

[Bob.]

nah i get it thanks. its pretty simple ive just never been shown how to do it. thanks again