How computers see the world - Binary - KS3 Computer Science Revision - BBC Bitesize (2024)

FAQs

Why do computers use binary BBC bitesize? ›

Computers use electrical signals that are on or off, so they have to see everything as a series of binary. Also known as base 2. numbers. This data is represented as a sequence of 1s and 0s (on and off).

These are: 0 + 0 = 0. 1 + 0 = 1. 1 + 1 = 10 (said one zero and is binary for 2)

Computers use binary numbers, 0 and 1. This is because computers use switches and a switch can only be ON or OFF. The Binarynumber system is referred to as Base 2.

In the exam, you may get asked to explain why we use a binary format to represent information on a computer. The answer is that computers use on and off signals, binary has two states 0 and 1, the binary 0 and 1 state can therefore represent the on and off electrical signals.

As mentioned above, binary has two states: off and on. If computers were to use the decimal system, there would be 10 states instead and they would have to work a lot harder to process them all. Binary is easier for computers to process, and it also takes up less space.

Computers use binary code to process and store information since the physical states of a computer's transistors being on or off lend themselves to a two-symbol method of notation. A single binary digit is referred to as a bit and is represented by zero or one; eight bits make up a byte.

0+0=0. 0+1=1. 1+0=1. 1+1=10.

Explanation: The binary number 1111 1111 represents the decimal value of 255. In binary, each digit represents an increasing power of 2, with the rightmost digit representing 20 (which is 1), the next digit to the left representing 21 (which is 2), and so on.

1001 in binary is 1111101001. Unlike the decimal number system where we use the digits 0 to 9 to represent a number, in a binary system, we use only 2 digits that are 0 and 1 (bits). We have used 10 bits to represent 1001 in binary.

Computers can't actually understand human language, they work in binary because that's easiest to work with. A computer is built on electrical signals, and if the signal is on, it represents a one. If it's off, it represents a zero. These ones and zeros string together to represent numbers, in base 2.

What is a simple explanation of binary? ›

In computer science and mathematics, binary is a system where numbers and values are expressed 0 or 1. Binary is base-2, meaning that it only uses two digits or bits. For computers, 1 is true or "on", and 0 is false or "off".

A code where each number represents a character can be used to convert text into binary. One code we can use for this is called ASCII. A 7-bit character set used for representing English keyboard characters.. The ASCII code takes each character on the keyboard and assigns it a binary number.

Each 1 or 0 in a binary number is called a bit. From there, a group of 4 bits is called a nibble, and 8-bits makes a byte.

A bit (binary digit) is the smallest unit of data that a computer can process and store. A bit is always in one of two physical states, similar to an on/off light switch. The state is represented by a single binary value, usually a 0 or 1.

Therefore, in order for a computer to be able to process any kind of data, including text, images and sound, they must be converted into binary. Also known as base 2. form. If the data is not converted into binary – a series of 1s and 0s – the computer will simply not understand it or be able to process it.

Computers easily understand binary because its based off on and off states (0 or 1) with 0 being off and 1 being on. Computers use logic gates which are composed of a multitude of transistors that use boolean logic to store data for the computer. Binary makes hardware convenient for computers.

Binary shifts are fundamental for data processing in computers and electronic systems, allowing for quick multiplication or division of binary numbers by powers of two. A left binary shift results in a multiplication by 2 while a right binary shift effectively divides the number by 2.