Question:
whats the big deal with binary. why does a computer need binary to read stuff. cant it just speak englin?
1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
whats the big deal with binary. why does a computer need binary to read stuff. cant it just speak englin?
Twelve answers:
lorenzzzo
2006-09-27 05:33:22 UTC
Okay. With computing, ALL is based upon a simple thing : is the electric current in the processor ON or OFF ? When ON, it tells an instruction to the machine . When OFF, nothing happens. For us humans, it is sipler to replace "current off" by a single "0", and "Current on" by "1". Then, the combination of "0" and "1" makes bigger and more sophisticated instructions, almost "words" and "sentences" the comuter can understand.
2006-09-27 05:39:07 UTC
They do speak english through translation.



Do a little research. It has to do with the charge property of electrons. + or -, on or off, 0 or 1!
?
2006-09-27 05:31:33 UTC
It's the simplest way to tell the electric components some info, if there is electricity flowing ( about 5v) then it's one , if there is no electricity (0 v ) then it's 0 ...
2006-09-27 05:54:48 UTC
hello

The binary numeral system (base 2 numerals) represents numeric values using two symbols, typically 0 and 1. More specifically, binary is a positional notation with a radix of two. Owing to its relatively straightforward implementation in electronic circuitry, the binary system is used internally by virtually all modern computers.Abinary number can be represented by any sequence of bits (binary digits), which in turn may be represented by any mechanism capable of being in two mutually exclusive states. The following sequences of symbols could all be interpreted as the same binary numeric value:



1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0

| - | - - | | - | -

x o x o o x x o x o

y n y n n y y n y n



The numeric value represented in each case is dependent upon the value assigned to each symbol. In a computer, the numeric values may be represented by two different voltages; on a magnetic disk, magnetic polarities may be used. A "positive", "yes", or "on" state is not necessarily equivalent to the numerical value of one; it depends on the architecture in use.



In keeping with customary representation of numerals using Arabic numerals, binary numbers are commonly written using the symbols 0 and 1. When written, binary numerals are often subscripted, prefixed or suffixed in order to indicate their base, or radix. The following notations are equivalent:



100101 binary (explicit statement of format)

100101b (a suffix indicating binary format)

100101B (a suffix indicating binary format)

bin 100101 (a prefix indicating binary format)

1001012 (a subscript indicating base-2 (binary) notation)

%100101 (a prefix indicating binary format)

0b100101 (a prefix indicating binary format, common in programming languages)



When spoken, binary numerals are usually pronounced by pronouncing each individual digit, in order to distinguish them from decimal numbers. For example, the binary numeral "100" is pronounced "one zero zero", rather than "one hundred", to make its binary nature explicit, and for purposes of correctness. Since the binary numeral "100" is equal to the decimal value four, it would be confusing, and numerically incorrect, to refer to the numeral as "one hundred."Counting in binary is similar to counting in any other number system. Beginning with a single digit, counting proceeds through each symbol, in increasing order. Decimal counting uses the symbols 0 through 9, while binary only uses the symbols 0 and 1.



When the symbols for the first digit are exhausted, the next-higher digit (to the left) is incremented, and counting starts over at 0. In decimal, counting proceeds like so:



000, 001, 002, ... 007, 008, 009, (rightmost digit starts over, and next digit is incremented)

010, 011, 012, ...

...

090, 091, 092, ... 097, 098, 099, (rightmost two digits start over, and next digit is incremented)

100, 101, 102, ...



After a digit reaches 9, an increment resets it to 0 but also causes an increment of the next digit to the left. In binary, counting is the same except that only the two symbols 0 and 1 are used. Thus after a digit reaches 1 in binary, an increment resets it to 0 but also causes an increment of the next digit to the left:



000, 001, (rightmost digit starts over, and next digit is incremented)

010, 011, (rightmost two digits start over, and next digit is incremented)

100, 101, ... Binary simplified,Arithmetic in binary is much like arithmetic in other numeral systems. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division can be performed on binary numerals.Addition

The circuit diagram for a binary half adder, which adds two bits together, producing sum and carry bits.

Enlarge

The circuit diagram for a binary half adder, which adds two bits together, producing sum and carry bits.



The simplest arithmetic operation in binary is addition. Adding two single-digit binary numbers is relatively simple:



0 + 0 = 0

0 + 1 = 1

1 + 0 = 1

1 + 1 = 10 (carry:1)

Adding two "1" values produces the value "10" (spoken as "one-zero"), equivalent to the decimal value 2. This is similar to what happens in decimal when certain single-digit numbers are added together; if the result equals or exceeds the value of the radix (10), the digit to the left is incremented:

5 + 5 = 10

7 + 9 = 16 ,This is known as carrying in most numeral systems. When the result of an addition exceeds the value of the radix, the procedure is to "carry the one" to the left, adding it to the next positional value. Carrying works the same way in binary: 1 1 1 1 1 (carry)

0 1 1 0 1

+ 1 0 1 1 1

-------------

= 1 0 0 1 0 0,n this example, two numerals are being added together: 011012 (13 decimal) and 101112 (23 decimal). The top row shows the carry bits used. Starting in the rightmost column, 1 + 1 = 102. The 1 is carried to the left, and the 0 is written at the bottom of the rightmost column. The second column from the right is added: 1 + 0 + 1 = 102 again; the 1 is carried, and 0 is written at the bottom. The third column: 1 + 1 + 1 = 112. This time, a 1 is carried, and a 1 is written in the bottom row. Proceeding like this gives the final answer 1001002.Subtraction



Subtraction works in much the same way:



0 − 0 = 0

0 − 1 = 1 (with borrow)

1 − 0 = 1

1 − 1 = 0



One binary numeral can be subtracted from another as follows:



* * * * (starred columns are borrowed from)

1 1 0 1 1 1 0

− 1 0 1 1 1

----------------

= 1 0 1 0 1 1 1

Subtracting a positive number is equivalent to adding a negative number of equal absolute value; computers typically use two's complement notation to represent negative values. This notation eliminates the need for a separate "subtract" operation. For further details, see two's complement.Multiplication



Multiplication in binary is similar to its decimal counterpart. Two numbers A and B can be multiplied by partial products: for each digit in B, the product of that digit in A is calculated and written on a new line, shifted leftward so that its rightmost digit lines up with the digit in B that was used. The sum of all these partial products gives the final result.



Since there are only two digits in binary, there are only two possible outcomes of each partial multiplication:



* If the digit in B is 0, the partial product is also 0

* If the digit in B is 1, the partial product is equal to A



For example, the binary numbers 1011 and 1010 are multiplied as follows: 1 0 1 1 (A)

× 1 0 1 0 (B)

---------

0 0 0 0 ← Corresponds to a zero in B

+ 1 0 1 1 ← Corresponds to a one in B

+ 0 0 0 0

+ 1 0 1 1

---------------

= 1 1 0 1 1 1 0,



Division



Binary division is again similar to its decimal counterpart:



__________

1 0 1 | 1 1 0 1 1



Here, the divisor is 1012, or 5 decimal, while the dividend is 110112, or 27 decimal. The procedure is the same as that of decimal long division; here, the divisor 1012 goes into the first three digits 1102 of the dividend one time, so a "1" is written on the top line. This result is multiplied by the divisor, and subtracted from the first three digits of the dividend; the next digit (a "1") is included to obtain a new three-digit sequence:



1

__________

1 0 1 | 1 1 0 1 1

− 1 0 1

-----

0 1 1



The procedure is then repeated with the new sequence, continuing until the digits in the dividend have been exhausted:



1 0 1

__________

1 0 1 | 1 1 0 1 1

− 1 0 1

-----

0 1 1

− 0 0 0

-----

1 1 1

− 1 0 1

-----

1 0



Thus, the quotient of 110112 divided by 1012 is 1012, as shown on the top line, while the remainder, shown on the bottom line, is 102. In decimal, 27 divided by 5 is 5, with a remainder of 2.Bitwise logical operations



Though not directly related to the numerical interpretation of binary symbols, sequences of bits may be manipulated using Boolean logical operators. When a string of binary symbols is manipulated in this way, it is called a bitwise operation; the logical operators AND, OR, and XOR may be performed on corresponding bits in two binary numerals provided as input. The logical NOT operation may be performed on individual bits in a single binary numeral provided as input. Sometimes, such operations may be used as arithmetic short-cuts, and may have other computational benefits as well. For example, discarding the last bit of a binary number (also known as binary shifting), is the decimal equivalent of division by two. See bitwise operation.Conversion to and from other numeral systems,Decimal



This method works for conversion from any base, but there are better methods for bases which are powers of two, such as octal and hexadecimal given below.



In place-value numeral systems, digits in successively lower, or less significant, positions represent successively smaller powers of the radix. The starting exponent is one less than the number of digits in the number. A five-digit number would start with an exponent of four. In the decimal system, the radix is 10 (ten), so the left-most digit of a five-digit number represents the 104 (ten thousands) position. Consider:



9735210 is equal to:



9 × 104 (9 × 10000 = 90000) plus

7 × 103 (7 × 1000 = 7000) plus

3 × 102 (3 × 100 = 300) plus

5 × 101 (5 × 10 = 50) plus

2 × 100 (2 × 1 = 2)



Multiplication by the radix is simple. The digits are shifted left, and a 0 is appended to the right end of the number. For example, 9735 times 10 is equal to 97350. So one way to interpret a string of digits is as the last digit added to the radix times all but the last digit. 97352 equals 9735 times 10 plus 2. An example in binary is 11011001112 equals 1101100112 times 2 plus 1. This is the essence of the conversion method. At each step, write the number to be converted as 2 × k + 0 or 2 × k + 1 for an integer k, which becomes the new number to be converted.



11810 is equal to



59 × 2 + 0

(29 × 2 + 1) × 2 + 0

((14 × 2 + 1) × 2 + 1) × 2 + 0

(((7 × 2 + 0) × 2 + 1) × 2 + 1) × 2 + 0

((((3 × 2 + 1) × 2 + 0) × 2 + 1) × 2 + 1) × 2 + 0

(((((1 × 2 + 1) × 2 + 1) × 2 + 0) × 2 + 1) × 2 + 1) × 2 + 0



1 × 26 + 1 × 25 + 1 × 24 + 0 × 23 + 1 × 22 + 1 × 21 + 0 × 20

1110110



So in the algorithm to convert from an integer decimal numeral to its binary equivalent, the number is divided by two, and the remainder written in the ones-place. The result is again divided by two, its remainder written in the next place to the left. This process repeats until the number becomes zero.



For example, 11810, in binary, is



Operation Remainder

118 ÷ 2 = 59 0

59 ÷ 2 = 29 1

29 ÷ 2 = 14 1

14 ÷ 2 = 7 0

7 ÷ 2 = 3 1

3 ÷ 2 = 1 1

1 ÷ 2 = 0 1



Using short division



2)118



2) 59. . .0



2) 29. . .1



2) 14. . .1



2) 7. . .0



2) 3. . .1



2) 1. . .1



0. . .1



Reading the sequence of remainders from the bottom up gives the binary numeral 11101102.



To convert from binary to decimal is the reverse algorithm. Starting from the left, double the result and add the next digit until there are no more. For example to convert 1100101011012 to decimal:



Result Remaining digits

0 110010101101

0 × 2 + 1 = 1 10010101101

1 × 2 + 1 = 3 0010101101

3 × 2 + 0 = 6 010101101

6 × 2 + 0 = 12 10101101

12 × 2 + 1 = 25 0101101

25 × 2 + 0 = 50 101101

50 × 2 + 1 = 101 01101

101 × 2 + 0 = 202 1101

202 × 2 + 1 = 405 101

405 × 2 + 1 = 811 01

811 × 2 + 0 = 1622 1

1622 × 2 + 1 = 3245 ,



The result is 324510.



The fractional parts of a numbers are converted with similar methods. They are again based on the equivalence of shifting with doubling or halving.



In a fractional binary number such as .110101101012, the first digit is \begin{matrix} \frac{1}{2} \end{matrix}, the second \begin{matrix} (\frac{1}{2})^2 = \frac{1}{4} \end{matrix}, etc. So if there is a 1 in the first place after the decimal, then the number is at least \begin{matrix} \frac{1}{2} \end{matrix}, and vice versa. Double that number is at least 1. This suggests the algorithm: Repeatedly double the number to be converted, record if the result is at least 1, and then throw away the integer part.



For example, \begin{matrix} (\frac{1}{3}) \end{matrix}10, in binary, i,



Converting Result

\begin{matrix} \frac{1}{3} \end{matrix} 0.

\begin{matrix} \frac{1}{3} \times 2 = \frac{2}{3} < 1 \end{matrix} 0.0

\begin{matrix} \frac{2}{3} \times 2 = 1\frac{1}{3} \ge 1 \end{matrix} 0.01

\begin{matrix} \frac{1}{3} \times 2 = \frac{2}{3} < 1 \end{matrix} 0.010

\begin{matrix} \frac{2}{3} \times 2 = 1\frac{1}{3} \ge 1 \end{matrix} 0.0101.



Thus the repeating decimal fraction 0.333... is equivalent to the repeating binary fraction 0.0101... .



Or for example, 0.110, in binary, is:



Converting Result

0.1 0.

0.1 × 2 = 0.2 < 1 0.0

0.2 × 2 = 0.4 < 1 0.00

0.4 × 2 = 0.8 < 1 0.000

0.8 × 2 = 1.6 ≥ 1 0.0001

0.6 × 2 = 1.2 ≥ 1 0.00011

0.2 × 2 = 0.4 < 1 0.000110

0.4 × 2 = 0.8 < 1 0.0001100

0.8 × 2 = 1.6 ≥ 1 0.00011001

0.6 × 2 = 1.2 ≥ 1 0.000110011

0.2 × 2 = 0.4 < 1 0.0001100110





This is also a repeating binary fraction 0.000110011... . It may come as a surprise that terminating decimal fractions can have repeating expansions in binary. It is for this reason that many are surprised to discover that 0.1 + ... + 0.1, (10 additions) differs from 1 in floating point arithmetic. In fact, the only binary fractions with terminating expansions are of the form of an integer divided by a power of 2, which 1/10 is not.



The final conversion is from binary to decimal fractions. The only difficulty arises with repeating fractions, but otherwise the method is to shift the fraction to an integer, convert it as above, and then divide by the appropriate power of two in the decimal base. For example,



x = 1100 .101110011100...

x \times 2^6 = 1100101110 .0111001110...

x \times 2 = 11001 .0111001110...

x \times (2^6 - 2) = 1100010101

x = (789/62)10,



Another way of converting from binary to decimal, often quicker for a person familiar with hexadecimal, is to do so indirectly—first converting (x in binary) into (x in hexadecimal) and then converting (x in hexadecimal) into (x in decimal)



Hex Dec Binary

0 0 0000

1 1 0001

2 2 0010

3 3 0011



Hex Dec Binary

4 4 0100

5 5 0101

6 6 0110

7 7 0111



Hex Dec Binary

8 8 1000

9 9 1001

A 10 1010

B 11 1011



Hex Dec Binary

C 12 1100

D 13 1101

E 14 1110

F 15 1111



To convert a hexadecimal number into its binary equivalent, simply substitute the corresponding binary digits:



3A16 = 0011 10102

E716 = 1110 01112



To convert a binary number into its hexadecimal equivalent, divide it into groups of four bits. If the number of bits isn't a multiple of four, simply insert extra 0 bits at the left (called padding). For example:



10100102 = 0101 0010 grouped with padding = 5216

110111012 = 1101 1101 grouped = DD16



To convert a hexadecimal number into its decimal equivalent, multiply the decimal equivalent of each hexadecimal digit by the corresponding power of 16 and add the resulting values:



C0E716 = (12 × 163) + (0 × 162) + (14 × 161) + (7 × 160) = (12 × 4096) + (0 × 256) + (14 × 16) + (7 × 1) = 49,38310



Octal



Binary is also easily converted to the octal numeral system, since octal uses a radix of 8, which is a power of two (namely, 23, so it takes exactly three binary digits to represent an octal digit). The correspondence between octal and binary numerals is the same as for the first eight digits of hexadecimal in the table above. Binary 000 is equivalent to the octal digit 0, binary 111 is equivalent to octal 7, and so on,



Octal Binary

0 000

1 001

2 010

3 011

4 100

5 101

6 110

7 111



Converting from octal to binary proceeds in the same fashion as it does for hexadecimal:



658 = 110 1012

178 = 001 1112



And from binary to octal:



1011002 = 101 1002 grouped = 548

100112 = 010 0112 grouped with padding = 238



And from octal to decimal:



658 = (6 × 81) + (5 × 80) = (6 × 8) + (5 × 1) = 5310

1278 = (1 × 82) + (2 × 81) + (7 × 80) = (1 × 64) + (2 × 8) + (7 × 1) = 8710



Representing real numbers



Non-integers can be represented by using negative powers, which are set off from the other digits by means of a radix point (called a decimal point in the decimal system). For example, the binary number 11.012 thus means:



1 × 21 (1 × 2 = 2) plus

1 × 20 (1 × 1 = 1) plus

0 × 2-1 (0 × ½ = 0) plus

1 × 2-2 (1 × ¼ = 0.25)



For a total of 3.25 decimal.



All dyadic rational numbers \frac{p}{2^a} have a terminating binary numeral—the binary representation has a finite number of terms after the radix point. Other rational numbers have binary representation, but instead of terminating, they recur, with a finite sequence of digits repeating indefinitely. For instance



\frac{1_{10}}{3_{10}} = \frac{1_2}{11_2} = 0.0101010101...2





\frac{12_{10}}{17_{10}} = \frac{1100_2}{10001_2} = 0.10110100 10110100 10110100...2



The phenomenon that the binary representation of any rational is either terminating or recurring also occurs in other radix-based numeral systems. See, for instance, the explanation in decimal. Another similarity is the existence of alternative representations for any terminating representation, relying on the fact that 0.111111... is the sum of the geometric series 2-1 + 2-2 + 2-3 + ... which is 1.



Binary numerals which neither terminate nor recur represent irrational numbers. For instance,



* 0.10100100010000100000100.... does have a pattern, but it is not a fixed-length recurring pattern, so the number is irrational

* 1.0110101000001001111001100110011111110... is the binary representation of \sqrt{2}, the square root of 2, another irrational. It has no discernible pattern, although a proof that \sqrt{2} is irrational requires more than this.
2016-03-27 17:23:44 UTC
A computer is only capable of dealing with two states: a low-voltage state and a high-voltage state. For convenience, we refer to those states as 0 and 1. Binary is a number system, just like decimal. With decimal, you have 10 possible digits : 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, and 9. In a number, the right-most digit is the (10^0) column (1s), the second right-most digit is 10^1, or 10s. The 3rd column is 10^2 = 100s, and so on. With binary, you only have the two states, 0 and 1. So the first column is the ones, the second column is the 2s, the 3rd column is the 4s (2^2), and so on. So for instance, the number 10010 = (1*2^4) + (0*2^3) + (0*2^2)+(1*2^1) + (0*2^0) = 16 + 2 = 18. That's all binary is. With computers, the trick is to make these numbers become commands. What people did is give each instruction a number, so let's pretend adding two numbers is command 20 (I'm just making this up- no one programs in binary any more so there's no reason to memorize the operator codes). The binary code for that is 10100. So if you wanted to add 12 (1100) and 3 (11), you would call the command 10100 1100 11. Text is also stored as numbers too. A=65 = b1000001, B=66, C=67 and so on.
darkon1365
2006-09-27 05:48:16 UTC
Binary is how computers actually read anything really. Basically binary is the low level language that computers use to send/receive data for any purpose (that is the 1's and 0's). As computers can not directly read any other language, but it must be converted into binary for the computer to work with it. Computers use a simple on/off sequence (1's and 0's) to dictate what it is putting out or to read what is coming in. A certain sequence of on/off equals a certain word in our language, like 10010001100101110110011011001101111 means hello, splitting the number into 7 digit sections you get one section for each letter of hello.
Useless
2006-09-27 05:43:16 UTC
Binary works like a light switch in that is either on or off, so suits the electricity that the computer runs on
captainivan118
2006-09-27 05:40:48 UTC
it uses binary to communicate between the componants, wat u c on the screen is what ur software translates the binary into,

so in short yes a pc/computer does need binary

and no it cant communicate (to the best of my knoledge) in english to its own components
Walter W. Krijthe
2006-09-27 05:31:28 UTC
Binary language is the basis of all computer data, including the use of the English language. A computer "reads" data through milllions/billions of switches, which only have two options: on or off, 1 or 0. It's the combination of these switches which makes up the information.



With 2 switches (bits) you have 4 possible values:

00 01 10 11



With 3 bits you have 9 possible values:

000 001 010 011 100 101 110 111



With 8 you have 256

With 16 you have 65536



and so on and so forth.



To state that a computer can't speak English, because it uses binary data is a severe misconception. What do you think a CD or DVD is written in???



All the sound you hear and images you see from A CD or DVD is all burnt into those discs in 1's and 0's.



With the right kind of software a computer can speak, in fact, every possible language known to man
Answers1
2006-09-27 06:18:06 UTC
I believe this is one of the more insightful questions on Y/A. It is worth a detailed explanation, which I am not qualified to give, but I will try anyway. Please forgive any confusion I may cause due to my poor understanding of these topics.



First, though, a comment. If you can think of a way to get computers to use natural language DIRECTLY to communicate with people, you will win Nobel Prizes and become more rich and famous than Bill Gates and Steve Jobs combined. This would be the greatest breakthrough in computer science since the invention of the transistor. I encourage you to build on your interest, natural curiosity and persistence to pursue this area.



(As I am sure you know computers can today be programmed to speak and to understand language, but these tasks are always translated into some kind of programming language which is itself compiled into a machine language that consists of binary code. They do not understand or speak English DIRECTLY as you would like.)



The model of computer operation was built on the pioneering work of Alan Turing in the late 1930's, among others. His Turing Machine envisioned a single element positioned on a strip of tape that could move based on the binary code it read off the tape. All computers and computer languages derive from this model. It is a binary (base 2) model. Others have tried to extend Turing's work to base 3, base 10, base 16, etc. arithmetic so as to make faster computers but this work has largely been unsuccessful. And, besides, this would not satisfy your criterion for DIRECT communication in natural language.



Much early work was also done on creating analog computers, that is, computers that operated with continuously varying voltages rather than binary voltages. Analog computers were used in WWII as calculators for torpedo trajectories, gun control, etc. There is a large body of work in an area called control theory that is based on analog computing. Analog computers can work very quickly. But again, they do not satisfy your criterion for DIRECT natural language communication.



Much work has been done on creating biological computers, and some interesting outcomes have resulted. For example, scientists can now place biological elements on silicon chips to test for different chemicals. These biochips are used in pollution control and testing for bacteria. These can be defined as computer functions- the chip must detect a material and then communicate with the outside world. Always, however, the communication is translated somewhere into binary code so computers can process the data.



If we approach your question from another angle, however, we begin to see the magnitude of the problem you have posed. For how do humans speak and understand language? There is a tremendous amount of work in this area that has gone on for centuries. Eventually, though, to my knowledge, this research must focus on how the brain works to generate and to understand speech. And brain research is some of the most tricky and complicated work you will find. As you know the brain is made up of neurons. These neurons communicate with each other in several ways. First, they communicate digitally (YES! LIKE COMPUTERS!) by firing and stimulating other neurons to fire in patterns that have some meaning, using the binary language of 1's and 0's. Second, they communicate in an analog fashion by influencing neighboring neurons with the frequency of their firing and therefore their influence on the analog voltage potentials in their immediate environments. Third they communicate hormonally, that is, electrical stimulation of neurons causes them to release chemicals into their immediate environment that influence neighboring neurons. There may be other communication modalities we do not yet understand between neurons, for example, genetic expression.



It is time to conclude. I think you see that your question becomes more and more of a philosophical one rather than a direct inquiry. For people are digital-analog-hormonal-genetic computers, in one sense. And as computers become more complex they will become more like people. My guess is that in several hundred years or so, people and computers will become indistinguishable.
Charlie Brigante
2006-09-27 05:31:53 UTC
Why don't you learn binary instead. It's a lot easier. 1100101011101 10101000011 000110 11 11
dewcoons
2006-09-27 05:36:13 UTC
No. Because then it won't be able to talk to anybody in like Mexico or France or India or Italia, or Japan or wherever. Duh!!


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