The Secret Language Of Computers: A Guide To How Computers Think Using Binary

Have you ever wondered what’s really going on inside your computer? How does it understand your clicks, your typing, or even display videos? It’s not magic (though it still feels like it, no matter how much I know it). It’s all thanks to a fascinating and surprisingly simple language that computers speak. And guess what? We’re about to dive in so you can understand the basics of all computers.

For many of us, the inner workings of a computer can seem like a complex mystery. We interact with sleek interfaces, colorful apps, and intuitive gestures, completely unaware of the intricate dance of electrical signals happening beneath the surface. But at its core, your computer, smartphone, and every digital device around you operate on a fundamental principle that’s easy to grasp: everything is either on or off.

Yep, that’s it.

This “on or off” concept is the foundation of computer language, and it’s where we begin. Forget complicated code for a moment. Let’s strip it down to the absolute basics.

Binary: The Computer's "On" and "Off" Switches

Imagine you have a single light switch. It can be in one of two states: on or off. That’s it. Computers employ a similar concept, but instead of light switches, they utilize electrical signals. A signal is either present (on) or absent (off).

In the world of computers, “on” is represented by the number 1, and “off” is represented by the number 0. This system of using only 0s and 1s is called binary. It’s the most fundamental language a computer understands. Every single piece of information your computer processes, from the pixels on your screen to the sound of your music, is ultimately broken down into a long string of these 0s and 1s.

It is mind-blowing to think about, isn’t it?

Think of it like a secret code. You might see a sentence like “PacketMinded!” on your screen, but inside the computer, it’s a massive sequence of 0s and 1s that represent each letter, each space, and even the exclamation point.

Bits and Bytes: Building Blocks Of Information

Now, a single 0 or 1 is pretty limited, right? It can only represent two things. To convey more complex information, computers group these 0s and 1s.

• A single 0 or 1 is called a bit (short for “binary digit”).

• Eight bits grouped form a byte.

A byte is a crucial unit in information technology because it’s the smallest addressable unit of data for many operations. It’s like a word in our human language breaks down into a collection of letters that form a meaningful unit.

The magic of a byte is that with just eight 1s or 0s (eight bits), you can represent a surprising amount of information. Each bit in a byte can be either 0 or 1.

So, for a byte, you have 2 possibilities for the first bit, 2 for the second, and so on, for all eight bits.

This gives us 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 or 2 to the power of 8, which equals 256 possible combinations.

This means that 1 byte (8 bits) can have 256 possible values. These values can range from all 0s (00000000) to all 1s (11111111). The highest decimal value a byte can represent is 255 (since in binary we start counting from 0, giving us 256 unique values).

Imagine a series of eight light switches. Each unique combination of “on” and “off” states for those eight switches can represent something different. This is how computers store and process data across everything they do!

Decimal Values: The Numbers We Understand

While computers thrive on binary, humans are much more comfortable with decimal values. This is the standard numerical system we use every day, based on ten digits (0 through 9).

When you type the number “7” into your calculator, you’re using a decimal value.

For computers and humans to communicate, there needs to be a way to convert between these two systems.

This is where the binary conversion table comes in handy.

Let’s look at how it works for a single byte. Each position in a binary number has a specific place value, just like in decimal numbers (ones, tens, hundreds, etc.). But in binary, the place values are powers of 2, starting from the rightmost bit as 2^0 (which is 1).

Here’s a simple binary conversion table for a byte:

To convert a binary number to decimal, you simply multiply each bit by its corresponding decimal value and then add them up.

Example: Let’s convert the binary number 01001101 to decimal.

• 0 x 128 = 0

• 1 x 64 = 64

• 0 x 32 = 0

• 0 x 16 = 0

• 1 x 8 = 8

• 1 x 4 = 4

• 0 x 2 = 0

• 1 x 1 = 1

Adding these up: 0 + 64 + 0 + 0 + 8 + 4 + 0 + 1 = 77

So, the binary value 01001101 is equivalent to the decimal value 77. This conversion process is happening constantly inside your computer, allowing it to translate its internal binary language into numbers you can understand.

You can use a conversion table, like the one that follows, to convert from decimal to binary, and vice versa:

Logic Gates: The Brains Behind The Bits

Knowing about 0s and 1s and how they form bytes is a great start, but how does the computer do anything with them? This is where logic gates come into play.

Imagine them as tiny electronic circuits that act like decision-makers. They take one or more binary inputs (0s or 1s) and produce a single binary output (a 0 or a 1) based on a specific logical rule.

These are the fundamental building blocks of all digital circuits, including the processor in your computer.

There are several types of logic gates, each with a different rule. Let’s look at a few of the most common ones:

• AND Gate: This gate outputs a 1 ONLY if all of its inputs are 1 (on). If even one input is 0, the output is 0 (off). Think of it like a safety mechanism: you need two keys to open a vault (both keys must be “1” for the vault to open).

  • You can visualize this with this reference using two inputs:

    • If both inputs are 1 (on) AND 1 (on), the output = 1 (on)

    • If the inputs are 1 (on) AND 0 (off), the output = 0 (off)

    • If the inputs are 0 (off) AND 1 (on), the output = 0 (off)

• OR Gate: This gate outputs a 1 if any of its inputs are 1 (on). The output is only 0 if all inputs are 0 (off). Imagine an emergency light: it turns on if power comes from the main grid OR from a backup generator.

  • You can visualize this with this reference using two inputs:

    • If both inputs are 1 OR 1 (on), the output = 1 (on)

      • If the inputs are 1 OR 0, the output = 1 (on)

      • If the inputs are 0 OR 1, the output = 1 (on)

      • If the inputs are both 0 OR 0 (off), the output = 0 (off)

• NOT Gate: This is a simple gate that takes one input and inverts it. If the input is 1 (on), the output is 0 (off). If the input is 0 (off), the output is 1 (on). It’s like a “flip the switch” operation.

  • You can visualize this using one input, such as:

    • If the input is a 1 (on), NOT the output = 0 (off)

    • If the input is a 0 (off), NOT the output = 1 (on)

These seemingly simple gates can be combined in incredibly complex ways to perform all the calculations and logical operations that make computers as powerful as they’ve become. Every mathematical operation, every comparison (is A greater than B?), every instruction your computer executes is ultimately broken down into a series of operations performed by these logic gates, using 1s and 0s.

It’s truly remarkable: millions, even billions, of these tiny “decision-makers” are working together in perfect synchronicity to run your software, display your videos, display the texts on your phone, and send your emails.

Congrats on making it this far! You’ve now got a fundamental understanding of how computers operate. Though you may be wondering, "how do our computers translate what we see into those 1s and 0s? Next, we’re going to take a look at what turns the letters and words you’re reading now into 1s and 0s that our computers understand.

ASCII & Extended ASCII: Giving Meaning to Bytes

So, we have bytes, which are groups of 0s and 1s that can represent 256 different values. But how do computers use these values to represent letters, punctuation marks, and other symbols that we use every day?

This is where character encoding standards come in. Think of these as a giant look-up table where a specific number equals a specified letter.

One of the oldest and most fundamental is ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange).

Read More About ASII On Wikipedia

Standard ASCII

ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) was the first major standard.

• The 7-Bit Origin: Originally, ASCII only used 7 bits to represent characters. This allowed for 128 unique symbols (0 to 127).

• What’s inside: This was enough for the English alphabet (A-Z, a-z), numbers (0-9), basic punctuation, and “control characters” (like the command to start a new line).

• Example: In ASCII, the letter “A” is always the decimal value 65.

Extended ASCII

As computing grew, 128 characters weren’t enough. We needed symbols like the © sign, math operators, and accented letters (like é or ñ). Read More About Extended ASCII On Wikipedia

• The 8-Bit Upgrade: Extended ASCII uses all 8 bits of a byte. This doubled the available slots from 128 to 256 unique symbols.

• The Mapping: Characters 0–127 remain the same as Standard ASCII, but characters 128–255 are used for these extra symbols and non-English characters.

For example:

• The decimal value 65 (binary 01000001) represents the uppercase letter ‘A’.

• The decimal value 97 (binary 01100001) represents the lowercase letter ‘a’.

• The decimal value 32 (binary 00100000) represents a space.

When you type the letter ‘A’ on your keyboard, the computer translates that keystroke into its ASCII decimal value (65), which is then stored and processed as the binary 01000001. When the computer needs to display ‘A’ on your screen, it looks up the binary code 01000001, sees that it corresponds to the ASCII character ‘A’, and displays it.

ASCII was incredibly successful and formed the backbone of early computing. It allowed for 256 unique symbols, which were enough for English letters (both uppercase and lowercase), numbers, punctuation marks, and some control characters. Or visit ASIICODE to learn more.

Use The Tables Below As A Quick ASII to Binary Reference:

UTF-8: The World's Language

While ASCII was great for English, it quickly became a problem as computers spread globally. What about languages with thousands of characters, like Chinese, Japanese, or Korean? What about special symbols, mathematical notations, or even emojis? ASCII simply didn’t have enough room in its 256 slots. Read More About UTF-8 On Wikipedia

This is where UTF-8 (Unicode Transformation Format - 8-bit) enters the picture. UTF-8 is a much more flexible and powerful character encoding that extends ASCII. Instead of being limited to one byte per character, UTF-8 can use multiple bytes to represent a single character.

Here’s the genius of UTF-8:

• For characters that are also in ASCII (like English letters, numbers, and basic punctuation), UTF-8 uses just one byte, making it fully backward compatible with ASCII. Allowing older systems to still understand the basic characters.

• For characters outside the ASCII range (like characters from other languages, special symbols, and yes, even emojis), UTF-8 uses two, three, or even four bytes. This is known as Variable Byte Length.

This variable-length encoding is incredibly efficient. Common characters use less space, while less common or complex characters can still be represented without limiting the total number of characters available.

Thanks to UTF-8, your computer can now display virtually any character from any language in the world, as well as a vast array of symbols and emojis we all use daily.

Bringing It All Together: A Symphony of 0s and 1s

Let’s recap what you’ve learned so far:

1. Binary Values (0s and 1s): The fundamental language of computers, representing “on” and “off” electrical signals.

2. Bits and Bytes: Bits are individual 0s or 1s. Eight bits make a byte, which can represent 256 different values (0-255).

3. Decimal Values: The numbers we use daily, which computers convert to and from binary using a binary conversion table.

4. Logic Gates: Tiny electronic circuits that perform basic logical operations on binary inputs, acting as the decision-makers within the computer.

5. ASCII: An older character encoding that uses one byte per character, sufficient for English and basic symbols.

6. UTF-8: A modern, flexible character encoding that extends ASCII, using multiple bytes to represent a vast range of characters from all languages and emojis, ensuring global compatibility.

Every time you type a letter, click an icon, or watch a video, this mind-boggling symphony of 0s and 1s, logic gates, and character encodings is playing out at lightning speed. Your computer is constantly converting between human-readable information and its own binary language, performing millions of calculations per second. That’s a lot of multitasking.

Understanding these basics won’t make you a programmer overnight, but it gives you a powerful glimpse into the foundation of how technology and computers work today. So next time you see an emoji, write an email, or read a text, remember the journey it took from a string of 0s and 1s to what you see on your screen!

Using the same example of 01001101 and the chart above:

Completing the process to convert 01001101 from binary to decimal format would look like:

Now simply add them together: 64 + 8 + 4 + 1 = 77

Meaning that 01001101 is equal to 77

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