Ch. 2.1 Sound Byte: Binary Numbers Interactive

Exploring Base Conversion

Humans use decimal (Base 10) numbers Computers use binary (Base 2) Hexadecimal (Base 16) numbers are used to represent larger numbers with fewer digits

The digit to the far right in any base system always has a place value of __________.

1

Hexadecimal numbers are based on which number?

16

Understanding Binary Numbers

Binary numbers are based on a system of only 2 digits: 0 and 1. Each binary digit is called a bit.

Conversion in Action

Colors on a computer display are represented using a red, green, and blue (RGB) system. Each of the three colors can have a value from 0 to 255. The higher the number, the brighter the light for that color shines.

Base Systems

Each base system depends on place value to give meaning to the digits in a number. A 3-digit decimal number has a hundreds (102), tens (101) and ones (100) place. A 3-digit hexadecimal number has a two hundred fifty sixes (162), sixteens (161), and ones (160) place.

Binary Basics

Every kind of information a computer can store is encoded into a binary code. A computer can also read the binary code and output alpha-numeric characters, graphics, and more.

Binary digits can be interpreted by the computer as all of the following EXCEPT

an entire file

Within a computer, information is stored using __________.

base 2

Binary digits are also called __________.

bits