Welcome to exploring computing; this article is part one of bits, bytes and binary. To know how computers work, it’s important to understand the number system of computers. A way in which computers represent data. This number system is all about zero and one. Computers use the binary number system so it’s important we take a look at what binary numbers look like. For starters we'll begin by comparing decimal numbers which are the numbers we're used to to binary numbers. Decimal numbers are based on the decimal number system which is the number system that we all know as normal numbers. In the decimal number system, there are 10 different digits 0 through 9. All the numbers that you're used to seeing contain these 10 different digits. We also sometimes refer to this number system as base 10. In contrast the computer uses a binary number system which has only two digits zero and one. Here are some examples of the different types of numbers that you can make with the binary number system, 101,10110,1001,11,110 etc. We'll take a look in another article on exactly how these works and what they might mean, but for now we just realize that all numbers in the binary number system consist of only two digits zero and one and because these, there are only two digits. We sometimes refer to numbers using this number system as being base 2.
What I want to look at next is why computers use the binary number system. If we were to open up the computer and look at the computer memory, what we would discover is that computer memories actually consist of a whole bunch of different individual electronic switches. We can think of these electronic switches as being not that different from your light switch and just as a light switch on the wall can either be ON or OFF, our switches inside the computer can be ON or OFF. When the switch is off, we think of that as representing the number zero and when the switch is on, we think of that as representing a one. So, each of our switches corresponds to a single digit and since these digits can only be zero or one, they're binary digits and we shorten binary digit to a bit.
When you hear somebody talking about a bit what they're talking about is a zero or a one or the memory inside the computer which is being used to store that zero or one. Now we can't really do a whole lot with a single bit so we combine the bits together into groups and the main grouping for bits is a set of eight bits which is referred to as a byte. The byte is the primary measure of computer storage.
While i've been describing what happens inside the main computer memory, all computer data is ultimately stored as bits and bytes. So, there are a variety of different mediums that we use to store digital information and in each case that digital media needs to be set up to store zeros and ones or bits and bytes. An ssd drive for example, which is what's inside most of your laptops stores information basically using electronic switches very similar to the ones we've described here however if you've got a hard disk if you open up the hard disk what you're going to discover is that there are individual sections on the disk itself that are magnetically polarized and depending on the polarity, if the polarity is in one direction it will be considered a zero if the polarity's in the opposite direction, it will be considered a one; if we take a close look at a CD, a DVD or Blu-ray, what we're going to discover is that it consists of a number of different sections which are either what is referred to as pits or lands depending upon whether there's a pit in that section of the disk or a land, ultimately what we're representing with these pits and lands is zeros and ones. So again, all information used by the computer is going to be storing these zeros and ones or these bits and they'll be organized into groups of eight called bytes.
In the next article, we will discuss how binary numbers are really used. Thank you for time and considering Tebtalks your number one point for all Technology, Education and Business needs. See you in the next article.
