Can you learn binary

What you have read earlier is just a glimpse of this world. But worry not because you can access a binary tutorial for free. Everything you need to learn about binary is included in the tutorial, from its definition to using it.

If you want to be a programmer or engage in the web development industry, learning the binary system is necessary. This is because programmers serve as the middlemen between computers and the end-users.

Most jobs nowadays require the use of a computer. And even if you are not working in an office, there could be instances when you need it for personal and business use. It would be best to know how computers function so you can understand them better. If you are a computer enthusiast, you will benefit a lot from learning how a computer works. For instance, learning binary code can help you diagnose computer problems.

When you know the computer issue, you can think of the best solutions to fix it since you know what is going on inside the computer. Do you want to tell your friends something? Do it in a fun and exciting way.

The binary code is an ideal way to send someone a coded message. Using a set of cards we can see if we can make a range of binary numbers.

Let's get out to the front of the room. I need 5 people. Take one card each. Now jump on this binary modeller program I made for you. You can make numbers by turning on and off lights. Work out what number I've made for you in the picture below. As you get started, think about how many characters there are in a keyboard. Can you guess? You can Google it if you want.

Take a look at the table at the right. Why do you think it is important to have a code for a blank space? And why are "A" and "a" given the numbers 65 and 97 respectively? Try to figure it out. The answer is in the way their binaries appear.

Can you see what's so special about this number pair combination? Begin with an uppercase letter and continuing with lowercase letters. Put the letters of your name in the first column. Could we work out how much disk space a book might take up if you typed it out? Consider the following:. How many characters of text are there in an average book? To help answer this question, select several different books of varying lengths. For each book, estimate the number of characters of text.

Remember to count the punctuation marks and include the blank character between words and sentences. Since ASCII is an 8-bit code and requires 8 binary numbers to represent each letter, blank space, or punctuation mark, how many binary numbers does it take to represent the text of an average book? Hint: Multiply 8 by the average number of text characters. Why are these images different file sizes?

When you finish this section of the course you should be able to answer this question. In this set of tasks you are going to go to one set of lessons on a site called Code. You will learn about;. Visit the task 1 video by clicking on the image link at right. Use the widget to make a 4 x 4 pixel image. Question, what football team does this binary code make: ? Click the 'more' arrow at the top of the Code. See if you can type in binary to make the image shown at right.

Watch the video on making colour with 3 bit depth pixels. As an extension activity, see if you can add two more lines below and create the same tonal ranges for yellow or purple. This is going to get pretty complicated if we keep adding pixel bit depth and continue with binary. We need a better way. The next section introduces another way of counting.

Real RGB pictures use a system known as 'True' colour. This means each pixel has 24 bits of colour depth. It is made by;. Writing these down in binary is simply too long. This is going to create a number which is 8 to the power of 8 to the power of 8. How big is that? In truth the number of colours is 16,,! Can't do it. Hexadecimal is a base 15 counting scheme. What do you think this means?

When we work it make a table like the one below in your book and fill it in. In this section we want to learn what does 'off', what does 'on' mean and how many steps are there in between on and off. Does that make sense? Read on,. The real question is, what is the maximum number that can be written with 8 columns bits of binary?

Let's work it out. Remember, each column is worth double the one to its right. So that's:. Hey, that equals But there's a catch. And that is, we also have '0'. Now what's so special about that?

Well, if you look back to the table you built above, tell me how many spaces were there between 0 and F? So if I said you could make 8 bit colour with only two columns using hexadecimal counting system that would mean you would have to be able to make with two columns!

Let's see if we can do it. Multiply 16 x 16 and we get That's it, hexadecimal to the rescue, and I'm going to show you how we can represent each of the three channels colours in two columns, making six column hex numbers. That's each pixel fully on. So what would that number be in Hex? To prove graduations in R, G, B and Hex, study the images below.

I have made all the shades of red from black to white. Read the way the hex values change in each image - and note the colour that is being made with the small white circle in the colour chart. Flick to lesson 4 examples 1 and 2 to see hexadecimal in action. Remember these are not 6 column numbers yet as we are only up to 12 Bit colour. Set up a 5 x 3 pixel image in 24 bit colour. Flick over to Hexadecimal. Now in the same Lesson 5 Freeplay, set up a new 12 x 12 pixel image in 24 bit colour.

Keep it in Hexadecimal. Make an image similar to the one shown on the right. To start I filled in every pixel with a grey, just to see where each number is in the pattern. Make a string of with breaks between them. See image , then copy them 11 more times. Make your own original image or try to create a logo that you know of.

To find the hex numbers of colours you want click on the image at right to visit the w3schools. Edit the colours one by one. I just copied each colour over the top of the others. Then pasted complete lines. I made the mountain last. Click this image to visit this interactive color picker. It will give you hex numbers for every colour you need. Answer the following questions on paper or if you use a computer, print them and stick them into your visual diary. Find where you wrote up what you thought the success criteria might be.

Check that you have done something for all of the steps you wrote down. Sure, technology may have gone through numerous innovations throughout the years, but binary code is still powering all digital devices.

Binary code is a numeric system where only two numbers, 0 and 1, are used to represent data and instructions. The only way a computer can understand your instructions is by converting them to binary code. Your smartphone also uses binary code. Apps, photos, videos, and songs on your phone are stored in bits. Bits are very tiny and can be stored on transistors. Most smartphones have a few million transistors embedded in their processors.

A switch is a device that allows current to pass through a circuit. Switches are important because computers run on electricity. Switches use a principle called Boolean logic to control how electricity coordinates with computer operations. There are a few reasons why binary code has worked so well throughout the ages. The first reason is that 0 and 1 are really simple to use. In essence, computers are dumb, and 0 and 1 are very simple concepts. They stand for on and off.

The second reason why binary code is a great system is because of the ease with which binary digits are stored.