How do you count by binary numbers?

Answer 1

To count in binary it is relatively simple. I will count in 8-bit, what this means is there will be 8 binary digits as a result. To get the values for each of the 8-bits you will need to set the first bit as one and double 7 times for each of the values. In this case the numbers will go:

128 | 64 | 32 | 16 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 1 (The numbers must go from large to small)

These are the values that will be used in our counting process, we add them together to get the numbers we want. However, computers don't understand those values (I am assuming that you know that a binary digit can be only 1 or 0). To get the number 3 in binary, we need to add 1 and 2 from the list above. So we will switch the numbers 1 and 2 on (on = 1, off = 0), so the number 3 in 8-bit binary will be:

00000011(11 for short)

You can do this with any number up to 255 (11111111) and then you will have to add more bits by doubling 128 and so on. Here are the numbers 1 to 10 in binary:

1 (1)

10 (2)

11 (3)

100 (4)

101 (5)

110 (6)

111 (7)

1000 (8)

1001 (9)

1010 (10)

If you are struggling to understand this, get some paper and write the numbers seen at the top of this answer. Then underneath them put a 1 if you need to add that number to make the result and a 0 if you don't. This makes it a lot easier to work out.