Computers & Binary
Why Computers Use Binary
Why Computers Use Binary
Why does data have to be converted to binary to be processed by a computer?
Data is processed in a computer using logic gates that only have two states
The binary number system only has two digits (1/0), which means each digit can represent a different state (1 = on, 0 = off)
All data must be converted to binary before a computer can understand and process it
Converting data to binary allows computers to process it at an incredible speed, perform complex calculations and store vast amounts of data efficiently
Secondary storage is a great example of the process
Magnetic hard drives use North and South polarity to represent a 1 or a 0
In Optical disks, light hitting a flat area (land) is interpreted as a 1 and light hitting a bump (pit) is interpreted as a 0
Take an example of driving a car
When driving a car the accelerator pedal is used to increase the cars speed
If a car was accelerating from 50mph to 100mph the increase would be gradual
In a computer system, the car is doing either 50mph (0) or 100mph (1), there is no in-between
Trying to change the computer system so that it has more options would be less efficient and require more complex parts for the computer to understand