Binary numbers

Binary numbers

1. What are binary numbers?

   • a binary number is a number expressed in the binary numeral system, or base-2 numeral system

2. Why the binary numbers were selected to work with computers?

   • Because it is easy to distinguish the presence of an electric current from an absense of electric current

3. How to convert binary numbers to decimal and vice versa?

   • From decimal to binary
     • divide the decimal number you want to convert by 2 (if the power of the decimal is 2) when the division is done, write the remainder of the division, and then divide the answer of the division by two again, then write the remainder, and so on.
   • From binary to decimal
     • Write down the binary number and list the powers of 2 from right to left. Let's say we want to convert the binary number 100110112 to decimal. First, write it down. Then, write down the powers of two from right to left. Start at 20, evaluating it as "1". Increment the exponent by one for each power. Stop when the amount of elements in the list is equal to the amount of digits in the binary number. The example number, 10011011, has eight digits, so the list, with eight elements, would look like this: 128, 64, 32, 16, 8, 4, 2, 1

4. What is a Bit and a Byte?

   • Bit
     • A bit is the smallest possible piece of information
   • Byte
     • A byte is simply a group of 8 bits.

5. What are the measurement units of data storage most commonly used?

   • Megabytes (MB)
   • Gigabytes (GB)

6. Example

   • 01001000 01000101 01001100 01001100 01001111
     • This binary code refers to the word: HELLO