Binary

Vrezh Hakobyan (AUA)

As we know, people use standard numbers for their usual tasks. The system of modern numbers is based on ten digits from 0 to 9. This system is simple for humans to understand because we have used it since childhood. Although the ten-based system of numbers is the primary system that people use, it is ununderstandable for computers. Now you can ask why? To answer this question, we need to understand how computers work. Computers only can understand two conditions. These conditions are when the electricity is ON or when it's OFF. So, let's assume that the condition ON is 1 and the condition OFF is 0. Now, we have a system of two numbers called binary. But how can we represent other numbers like 3 , 10 or billion? As you noticed, we have only two digits- 0 and 1. Let's assume that we have a lamp that is turned off. Logically, we can say that it represents the number 0 zero and when we turn it on, it will mean the number 1. Now let's add one more lamp which is turned off. As a result, our first lamp is on, and the second is off. In this case, we can assume that the result of these two combined lamps is 2. This way, we can turn all lamps on to represent the number 3. So, to get the number, we can turn these two lamps on or off and then add new lamps. This principle is used in computers to understand information. From the beginning of the history of computers until now, the binary system has been the only way for people and computers to understand each other. It's possible that people will use other numbering systems in the future to program computers, but the binary system for computers will remain of the greatest inventions in history.