Binary

CSCE 101
How is Information Stored
• Information is stored in the computer as binary numbers
(0’s and 1’s). Even images are stored in this way, where a
combination of 0’s and 1’s represent each color in the
picture
• Each binary number is a switch where 0 is off and 1 is on

• How to read/write binary:

– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qjEkh3P9RE
Base 10
• The system we generally talk about numbers is in a 10
based system, also called decimal
• In 10 based system we talk about how many 1’s we have,
how many 10’s, how many 100’s etc
• For example the following number 4567 is
– 7 ones
– 6 tens
– 5 hundreds
– 4 thousands
Base 10
Each of the categories, ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, …
are different powers of 10

103 = 1000 102 = 100 101 = 10 100 = 1

4 5 6 7
Binary (Base 2)
Now the categories we use to represent a number are
powers of 2

26 = 64 25 = 32 24 = 16 23 = 8 22 = 4 21 = 2 20 = 1
Binary (Base 2)
What is the number 1101 in the two based system?
First we put the number in the chart, aligning it to the right

26 25 24 23 22 21 20
64 32 16 8 4 2 1
1 1 0 1

Then we add up the numbers 1 (8), 1 (4) and 1 (1)

which means the number is 8+4+1 = 13
Practice
Convert the binary number to decimal
110110

26 25 24 23 22 21 20
64 32 16 8 4 2 1
1 1 0 1 1 0

Answer
110110 = 32 + 16 + 4 + 2 = 54
Practice
Convert the binary number to decimal
000111

26 25 24 23 22 21 20
64 32 16 8 4 2 1
0 0 0 0 1 1 1

Answer
000111 = 4 + 2 + 1 = 7
Practice
Convert the binary number to decimal
0100011

26 25 24 23 22 21 20
64 32 16 8 4 2 1
0 1 0 0 0 1 1

Answer
0100011 = 32 + 2 + 1= 35
Writing numbers in binary
• You follow the same process as when you write a
number in decimal format.
• First find the highest power of two that goes into the
number
• Subtract that amount from the number,
• Put a 1 in that spot
• and repeat
Example (37)
• Write 37 in binary
• First we see that the largest power of 2 that goes into
the number is 25 or 32 so we put a 1 in that spot

26 25 24 23 22 21 20
64 32 16 8 4 2 1
1

• 37 – 32 =5
• Now we need to add 5 to this number
Example (37)
• Now we need to add 5 to our number
• We see that the largest power of 2 that goes into the
number is 22 or 4 so we put a 1 in that spot

26 25 24 23 22 21 20
64 32 16 8 4 2 1
1 1

• 5 – 4 =1
• Now we need to add 1 to this number
Example (37)
• Now we need to add 1 to our number
• We see that the largest power of 2 that goes into the
number is 20 or 1 so we put a 1 in that spot

26 25 24 23 22 21 20
64 32 16 8 4 2 1
0 1 0 0 1 0 1

• We then put zeros everywhere else

Example (37)
And we now have represented 37 in binary
– 100101

26 25 24 23 22 21 20
64 32 16 8 4 2 1
0 1 0 0 1 0 1

• We can add as many 0’s to the left of the numbers as we like and it
stays the same.
• So this number is the same as 000100101
Practice
26 25 24 23 22 21 20
64 32 16 8 4 2 1

• Now write the following numbers in binary

–9
– 17
– 63
• Answers
– 9 = 1001
– 17 = 010001
– 63 = 111111
Hexadecimal (Base 16)
• Now the categories we use to represent a number are
powers of 16
• Since, our numbers go higher then 10 we need more
characters. Our numbers are now…
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Hexadecimal (Base 16)
Now the categories we use to represent a number are
powers of 16

165 = 32 164 = 163 = 162 = 161 = 16 160 = 1

1048576 65536 4096 256
Hexadecimal (Base 16)
What is the number 123 in the 16 based system?
First we put the number in the chart, aligning it to the right

165 = 32 164 = 163 = 162 = 161 = 16 160 = 1

1048576 65536 4096 256

1 2 3

Then we add up the numbers 1 (256), 2 (16) and 3 (1)

which means the number is 256+32+3 = 291
Hexadecimal (Base 16)
Let’s try ABC in the 16 based system?
First we put the number in the chart, aligning it to the right

165 = 32 164 = 163 = 162 = 161 = 16 160 = 1

1048576 65536 4096 256

A B C

Then we add up the numbers 10 (256), 11 (16) and 12 (1)

which means the number is 2560+176+12 = 2748
Hexadecimal (Base 16)
Let’s try taking a decimal number and converting it to
Hexadecimal. Let’s convert the number 3000.
We do this by repeatedly dividing by 16, the remainder goes
on the farthest right column.
3000/16 = 187 R 8 (Put 8 in farthest right)
187/16 =11 R 11 (But B in next right)
11/16 = 0 R 11 (Put B in next right)

165 = 32 164 = 163 = 162 = 161 = 16 160 = 1

1048576 65536 4096 256

0 0 0 B B 8
ASCII
• Stands for American Standard Code for Information
Interchange
• The way we represent English characters as numbers
(binary)
• Each letter is assigned a number form 0 to 1
A = 01000001
B = 01000010
C = 01000011
…
Text Compression
• Can take body of text and make it smaller
• Makes it more feasible for you to send these files
• Will find simplify repeated patterns so they take up less
space.

the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.

becomes
? r! in Sp! falls m!ly on ? pl!. ! = ain
? = the
Color
• Colors are made up of a certain percent of: Red,
Green, and Blue. e.g.
Red Green Blue Color
0 0 0 Black
255 255 255 White
255 255 0 Yellow
255 130 255 Pink

• We use binary numbers to represent different

colors
Images
• Each pixel of color in an image is represented by a binary
number
• The more pixels in an image the less pixelated the image
looks, the higher the resolution, and the more space it
takes up (The extra pixel data needs to be stored)
Image Compression
• In a vector image there is a lot of repeated color.
• Hence the compression can be very effective, and you
can use lossless compression.
JPG
• JPG Images is a compressed file format , making it take
up less space on your website and become faster to load
• The compression is lossy. This means that some of the
image data is actually lost; however, the change in quality
is said to be invisible to the human eye.
• JPG compression works well for pictures
• JPG does not work well for lettering or simple images of
few colors.
GIF
• GIF uses a losless compression.
• Only supports 256 colors
• GIF is better than JPG for images that have few colors.
Simple images.
• Images like sunsets have tons of colors, even though
they are close in shade and should use JPG rather than
GIF.
PNG
• An improvement on GIF
• Can be compressed slightly more, and supports more
transparency.