Binary is the base 2 number system. We typically use the decimal (base 10) number system to count, but any base actually works.
Decimal:
| 6234 means that we have: | 6 [1000s] | 2 [100s] | 3 [10s] | 4 [1s] | Another way to see these is as powers of 10: | 6 [103s] | 2 [102s] | 3 [101s] | 4 [100s] |
Binary works the exact same way, except the base of our numbers is 2.
Binary:
| 0110 means that we have: | 0 [8s] | 1 [4s] | 1 [2s] | 0 [1s] | Or as powers of 2: | 0 [23s] | 1 [22s] | 1 [21s] | 0 [20s] |
This gives us a total of 6 in base 10. So we say 01102 = 610.
You can click on the bits here to turn them on or off to see the result, or add/subtract 1 at a time.
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| – | + | ||||||
| 000000002 | = | 00010 | |||||
| 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 | = | 0 + 0 + 0 | |||||