SCEN103 Introduction to Binary Counting

Base 2 counting

Motivation -- only 2 states needed:
    Switch ON or OFF,
    Circuit CLOSED or OPEN,
    Current FLOWING or NOT,
    Voltage HIGH or LOW

Place holders are powers of 2

Power of 2: 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
Decimal Weight: 128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1
   27  26  25  24  23  22  21  20

Example: convert 1100010 to decimal
Binary Number: 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0
Decimal Weight of Placeholders:  128  64  32  16   8   4   2   1
Contributions to Decimal Number: 0 64 32 0 0 0 2 0

Answer: 64 + 32 + 2 = 98

Correspondence between decimal digit and binary bits
    "bit" is a contraction of "binary digit"

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Last updated March 18, 1999.
Copyright George Watson, Univ. of Delaware, 1999.