Why does a computer use Binary number System?

Answer 1

Binary is the simplest way to represent information. Binary has two states, high and low. It's pretty easy to distinguish between two states. If you tried something more complex, like a trinary (low, middle, and high) you would have two boundaries to worry about, which could be hard to distinguish between. For example, a binary system could define 1 to be (near) 5V and 0 to be (near) 0V. You don't have to distinguish between 2.45 V and 2.55 V, just close to zero or close to 5. Or it could be magentized Left-to-Right or Up-to-down. You don't have to worry about is it 40 degrees or 50 degrees off.

Answer 2

Computers use a binary number system -- which consists of only two digits, 0 and 1 -- because they run on electricity. At any given point in an electrical system, at any given time, current is either flowing (a state that represents 1) or it is not (a state that represents 0). All things done by a computer are done electrically, and must therefore be expressed by zeros and ones. In computer terms, each zero or one is called a bit. A string of eight bits is called a byte. A thousand bytes is a kilobyte, and a thousand of those is a megabyte, and a thousand of those is a gigabyte, which brings the lowly zeros and ones into a realm we can understand.

The power of the computer is not its ability to work in complex number systems. It is its ability to do the very simplest of things thousands, millions, or even billions of times a second.

Answer 3

Basically it is because they use only two states of electrical energy as the method of storing and manipulating information. ON or OFF. Charge or No Charge. Plus voltage or Minus voltage, etc. If you only have two states to deal with, by definition it has to use the binary system, in which all values are defined by two digits, 0 and 1. also where "digital computer" comes from.

Answer 4

It doesn't have to be, in the beginning there were attempts on using other formats, including analog. But it turned out that binary digits were simpler, cheaper and more reliable to work on.

For example, consider using decimal digits (0-9) instead of binary (0-1): The electronics, storage etc. would need to be able to separate 10 different values rather than just 2 (on or off), so each circuit would need more fine tuning. In return, you could store 3.5 binary digits' worth of information in a single decimal digit, and would need less electronics.

In the beginning it wasn't obvious which way would be better, but the binary digit format won. It was the easiest to operate on and to send through cables without loss, and the savings and extra reliability from needing less fine tuning was more important than the disadvantage of needing more transistors.

Answer 5

Because information is transmitted through wires using electrons, every time an electron passes through a wire, it is counted as a "1", and every time an electron is not sent through the wire, it is counted as a "0".

Answer 6

Because each element in the computer's magnetic memory can be magnetised or not magnetised. This can be done by having the current on or off. It may be possible to vary the voltage into ten levels so that different levels represent the digits 0 to 9 but such a method is much more prone to data degradation.

Answer 7

That is simply how digital computers operate. They operate by turning signals on and off on wires. So there is a wire or circuitry for each bit of data, and the range of data doubles for each wire (or bit) added. For instance, 2 circuits would represent 4 possibilities, but 3 circuits would represent 8 possibilities.

Answer 8

because that is the only language it can understand. It cannot understand our language so it uses binary

Answer 9

Because - even the most modern computers rely on electronic switches. A switch is either on (1) or off (0). The binary number system uses just the digits 1 & 0.

Answer 10

Because... they use billions of internal electronic 'switches'. A simple switch can either be on (1) or off (0).