What is the binary code used for?

Answer 1

binary code

(computer science) A code in which each allowable position has one of two possible states, commonly 0 and 1; the binary number system is one of many binary codes.

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Answer 2

It's the only system a computer actually understands. Binary is a base-2 numbering system. Computers are capable of determining the difference between two possible states in a variety of ways: switches (on and off), capacitors (high and low electrical charges), flux (transitions between positively and negatively charged particles), and so on. It is easier to think of the myriad possible representations as being a switch that is either on or off. These switches can be divided up into groups, such that one large group defines the computer's working memory and smaller groups are used to define the mode of operation (the current instruction pointer), operands (such as memory addresses), outputs and other housekeeping tasks such as the stack pointer and so on.

In order for humans to notate the machine's current state we use binary notation, where a 1 denotes that a particular switch is on while a 0 denotes the switch is off. Thus the computer's internal state for any group of switches at any given moment can be denoted as a sequence of 0s and 1s.

Answer 3

Code used in digital computers, based on a binary number system in which there are only two possible states, off and on, usually symbolized by 0 and 1. Whereas in a decimal system, which employs 10 digits, each digit position represents a power of 10 (100, 1,000, etc.), in a binary system each digit position represents a power of 2 (4, 8, 16, etc.). A binary code signal is a series of electrical pulses that represent numbers, characters, and operations to be performed. A device called a clock sends out regular pulses, and components such as transistors switch on (1) or off (0) to pass or block the pulses. In binary code, each decimal number (0-9) is represented by a set of fourbinary digits, or bits. The four fundamental arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) can all be reduced to combinations of fundamental Boolean algebraic operations (see Boolean algebra) on binary numbers. It is very easy.

Answer 4

A binary code is a number composed entirely from two symbols or digits. Computers use binary codes because it is easy to represent a binary digit (a bit) in computer memory by the presence or absence of an adequate electric charge in a capacitor. Capacitors don't hold their charge very long (a few milliseconds at most) but a transistor can top them up if refreshed often enough, hence the reason memory has a refresh rate. So long as a capacitor is above a level of charge, it registers as a '1', otherwise it registers as a '0'. Transistors can also be used to quickly switch the state of a capacitor, draining it or filling it with charge.

Magnetic medium (hard-drives, floppy disks and tape) use polarised particles to represent binary digits. However, any medium that can be switched between two "states" can be used to store binary information. Laser discs work by "burning" a series of long and short cuts into a substrate. Punch cards work by punching holes in cards.

Although computers have no real intelligence and have no concept of numbers, we can give them the illusion that they do through logic gates and simple arithmetic circuits such as bit adders. For instance, the AND logic circuit has two inputs and one output. If both inputs are '1', then the output is '1', otherwise the output is '0'.

Computers are obviously capable of processing binary data extremely efficiently, but binary data is difficult for humans to interpret. We're used to working with 10 digits (0 through 9) however the exact same principals apply no matter how many symbols you use to represent a number. We count from 0 to 9 (units), then we put a 1 in the "tens" column and start over from 0 in the units column. Binary numbers are the same except we count from 0 to 1 and then place a 1 in the "twos" column. For that reason, decimal numbers are known as base 10 while binary is base 2. Just as each significant column in decimal multiplies by 10 from the previous column, binary multiples by 2, thus the next columns represent 4, 8, 16, 32 and so on. Thus if a 1 is present in a particular column, we simply add the value of that column to an accumulator to get the decimal value.

However, there are easier ways to convert from binary to decimal and back again, using octal (base 8) and hexadecimal (base 16). Octal has 8 digits (0 to 7) and these digits can be represented in binary as follows:

Octal = Binary

0 = 000

1 = 001

2 = 010

3 = 011

4 = 100

5 = 101

6 = 110

7 = 111

As we can see, a single octal digit can represent any combination of 3 bits. Therefore if we divide any long sequence of binary digits into groups of three bits, we can easily replace those groups with the equivalent octal digits. Thus a 24-bit value can be easily translated into any 8-digit octal value.

At first it may seem counter-productive to notate binary values in octal when we can simply program the computer to convert decimal values into binary, operate upon the binary value and then present the result in decimal. That's certainly convenient when we're specifically working in decimal, however programmers often need to work in binary (at the bit level) and octal provides a convenient notation. The computer can be programmed to translate octal numbers into binary just as easily as it can decimal.

We can take it a step further by using hexadecimal to notate binary values. Hexadecimal has 16 digits, 0 through 9 (as in decimal), and the letters a through f for the decimal values 10 through 15. A single hexadecimal digit represents any combination of 4 bits:

Hex = Binary

0 = 0000

1 = 0001

2 = 0010

3 = 0011

4 = 0100

5 = 0101

6 = 0110

7 = 0111

8 = 1000

9 = 1001

a = 1010

b = 1011

c = 1100

d = 1101

e = 1110

f = 1111

Hexadecimal is arguably more convenient than octal because computers typically work with an 8-bit byte. 4-bit hex groupings are called nybbles because they are literally half-a-byte, and we can represent any byte using a two-digit hexadecimal value.

One of the biggest problems with binary is that it is not possible to represent floating point values accurately. However, the same problem exists in decimal. Consider the irrational fraction 1/3 in decimal: 0.333333333... To represent this value accurately would require an infinite number of bits -- and we simply don't have that much memory to play with! To perform binary computations on irrational fractions we have to impose limits upon the number of decimal places. This affects the precision of those values and can lead to some unexpected rounding errors. However, today, we have floating point circuitry dedicated to handling fractions with a higher degree of precision than any of us would ever need in practice. For instance, the value of PI has been calculated to tens of trillions of decimal places but we only need 38 decimal places to calculate the circumference of the known universe to within the width of 1 hydrogen atom.

Answer 5

The binary code system is a base 2 system that computers use. It only uses the numbers 0 and 1. In computers, it acts as an on or off switch.

Answer 6

Binary code is a code comprising base 2 numbers, zeros and ones, which the computer processor can understand