How to read binary

If you find binary a bit confusing this might help you. Once you get the basics if becomes pretty easy.

---

Computers are made of transistors which either have an on or off state.

We can represent the off and of states with 0 and 1.

0 is off

1 is on

Each 1 or 0 is called a bit, eight bits make a byte.

Ok, so you probably know the number 342 has 3 hundreds, 4 tens and 2 ones.

We can represent numbers in binary in a similar way.

In a base-10 counting system each place value increases by x10.

1 * 10 = 10

10 * 10 = 100

100 * 10 = 1000

And so on.

In binary each place value increases by x2. like this:

1 * 2 = 2

2 * 2 = 4

4 * 2 = 8

8 * 2 = 16

Ok, let's look at an example.

Our binary number will be 0011

remember that that binary only has ones and zeros

0 0 1 1
8 4 2 1

The orange numbers represents the value in that column.

In the example we have 0 eights, 0 fours, 1 ones and 2 twos

2 + 1 = 3

So 0011 is 3!

And surprisingly you make any number using this system.

If you would like to practise, try these (answers are below):

8 4 2 1
0 1 0 1
1 1 0 0
1 1 1 1
0 0 0 0
1 0 0 1


Challenge:
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

---

Answers:

1. 5

2. 12

3. 15

4. 0

5. 9

6. Challenge: 255