Binary Bits and Bytes: Difference between revisions

First things first. Despite being represented as [[Zeroes and Ones]], binary is not actually made of them. It can be any two distinct states; it's commonly represented as zeroes and ones because "00011101" is much easier to read and comprehend than "off, off, off, on, on, on, off, on". The states can be hole or no hole (ye olde punchcarde), high/low voltages (RAM), magnetic field polarities ([[Magnetic Disk|Magnetic Disks]]), pits (optical discs, e.g. [[Compact Disc|Compact Discs]]), or anything else; the binary 0s and 1s are simply practical methods to represent the state of the electronic hardware. Which state represents which "digit" varies by architecture, but it's canonical to say either 0 or "off" and 1 or "on". Nowadays in some cases, it is not even a state that is represented by ones and zeroes, it is the ''change'' of the state, with 1 being an increase of some value, and 0 being a drop, for example.