So, you would like to learn more about what binary numbers are, and why we need them. There is a reason why the binary system was chosen for building electrical systems and powering basically any system dependant on logic.

Let us dive into numbers…

Look at your bank statement. Or your bills, or even your paycheques. You might have noticed that the numbers are in the decimal format. The word ‘decimal’ is derived from Greek, loosely translated into ‘numbers that use ten as their base’. Why do we use this, over other number systems in our everyday activities, and our monetary system? One speculation is that it is because we have ten fingers on our hands, and coincidentally, ten toes on our feet. We can “understand” ten-based number systems easily, as we realize that we need another hand to count #11.

In the world of electricity, circuits, and machines powered by logic, information is represented by bits, the smallest unit of data, which in a crude approximation, is just a matter of looking at the electrical voltage and comparing it to a voltage logic level set by a human.

If our voltage is higher than the logic level, then we call the bit a ‘1’, and if it is lower, we call it a ‘0’. This enables us to vary voltages around our logic board to transfer information!

Since we can change voltages really really fast, this becomes a really fast way to transfer information accurately. Since the information is a series of zeroes and ones, it is difficult to mess it up, as long the voltage varies by a large margin.