What do a bunch of zeros and ones mean

The definition of Binary on this page is an original TechTerms. If you would like to reference this page or cite this definition, you can use the green citation links above. The goal of TechTerms. We strive for simplicity and accuracy with every definition we publish. If you have feedback about the Binary definition or would like to suggest a new technical term, please contact us.

Want to learn more tech terms? Subscribe to the daily or weekly newsletter and get featured terms and quizzes delivered to your inbox. You can unsubscribe or change your frequency setting at any time using the links available in each email. Please contact us. We just sent you an email to confirm your email address. This is called base ten because we use ten digits to form any number. The placement of the digit in the number stands for that digit times a power of ten. Computers write their numbers using only the digits 0 and 1.

Their system is called base two because only the first two digits are used to form numbers and each place in the number corresponds to a power of two. Can every number smaller than 32 be represented this way?

Are there different ways to represent a number? What about 32 and higher cards? The Problem Site. Quote Puzzler. Tile Puzzler. Loading profile Logged in as:. Password recovery. Go Pro! Binary Code. Binary Encoder. Enter some text here to be converted to binary.

Other Encoders. Basic Explanation Did you know that everything a computer does is based on ones and zeroes? We'll say the first lightbulb is worth two points, and the second one is worth one point. And if we added in another bulb, we would make it worth 8 points twice as much as four. As you can see, it's going to take a lot of lightbulbs to make a really big number! If those two numbers are represented by lightbulbs, what is the value assigned to a bulb that is not turned on?