Week 2: Muddy

Binary has always fascinated me, but not in the sense of how it relates to computers. I was originally introduced to binary numbers in my sophomore year of high school. At this point, my Stanford educated computer engineering cousin was attempting to teach my how to program computers. This sounded fun at the time, but was overwhelming for me at that age. One of the first lessons he gave me during this time was how binary numbers are read by computers. This was very brief, but I understood the simple concept of how computers interpret these strains of ones and zeros. When I came across this topic in class, I understood the basics of binary, but I still had trouble understanding why binary had to be used. I understood how it was interpreted, but I still had trouble understanding why it was necessary.

"ISM 3004 Week 2 Muddy Binary" in Binary

After doing a little bit more research and focusing on this concept more intently than just watching a lecture, I finally began to understand what these binary numbers are all about. A computer stores information in a series of circuits. There are billions and billions of these circuits in any given computer. Because the circuits used in computers can only be turned on or off, they can only be represented by the numbers "0" and "1". Depending on the sequence of zeros and ones, the circuits are storing various information. This website gives good insight into why computers use binary instead of decimal: http://nookkin.com/content/why-computers-use-binary.php

While there is still a great deal that I do not know about the programming of computers, I am able to understand what a byte of binary represents. For my choice in career, I don't think I will make much use of this information. But, it is an interesting hobby to learn binary, as it is essentially a language.

Photo Copyright Matthew Baranyk, 2012