throughout history almost every
civilization has used a decimal number
system with ten digits 0 through 9 all
of the numbers we can possibly think of
use some combination of those 10 digits
computers however operate very
differently instead they use a number
system that has just two digits 1 & 0
this system is called binary and your
computer uses it all the time computers
need information in order to do what
they do this digital information or data
is made up of something called bits bit
is short for binary digit meaning each
bit is really just a single number
either a 1 or a 0 these bits can be
combined to create larger units like
bytes megabytes and so on that we use to
measure our files the larger a file is
the more bits it has so something like a
high resolution video is actually made
up of millions and millions and millions
of ones and zeros so how exactly do
these ones and zeros come together and
allow a computer to function let's think
of binary as a light switch imagine that
a one represents the light switch being
on and zero represents it being off with
binary the light is either on or off
with no other possible States so these
bits are strung together as different
combinations of ones and zeros and they
form a kind of code your computer then
rapidly processes this code and
translates it into data telling it what
to do you might be wondering why do
computers use binary instead of the
decimal system that we use for counting
things in the real world well as
previously mentioned binary has two
states off and on if computers were to
use decimal there would be 10 states
instead our computers would have to work
a lot harder to process all of these
binary is easier for them to process and
also takes up less space
just like atoms make up everything
around us in the real world everything
in the digital world including video
text pictures and more can be broken
down into binary and even though we
can't see them it's all a bunch of ones
and zeros GCF global creating
opportunities for a better life