What is a Binary Number?

#whatis #binary

A binary number is a number expressed in the base-2 numeral system, which uses only two digits: 0 and 1. This is in contrast to the decimal (base-10) numeral system that we use in everyday life, which uses ten digits: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.

In the binary system, each digit represents a power of 2, starting with $2^0$ (which is equal to 1) and increasing by a factor of 2 for each successive digit. For example, the binary number 1011 represents:

1 \times 2^3 + 0 \times 2^2 + 1 \times 2^1 + 1 \times 2^0 = 8 + 0 + 2 + 1 = 11

Binary numbers are commonly used in computer science and digital electronics because they can be easily represented using electronic switches that are either on or off (i.e., 1 or 0). This makes them ideal for representing digital data, such as the instructions that a computer executes or the pixels in a digital image.

In addition to binary, there are other numeral systems that use different bases, such as octal (base-8) and hexadecimal (base-16). These systems are also commonly used in computer science and digital electronics because they can be easily converted to and from binary.