Science for Net

To understand binary numbers, begin by recalling elementary school math. When we first learned about numbers, we were taught that, in the decimal system, things are organized into columns:

H | T | O
1 | 9 | 3

such that "H" is the hundreds column, "T" is the tens column, and "O" is the ones column. So the number "193" is 1-hundreds plus 9-tens plus 3-ones.

Years later, we learned that the ones column meant 10^0, the tens column meant 10^1, the hundreds column 10^2 and so on, such that

10^2|10^1|10^0
1 | 9 | 3

the number 193 is really {(1*10^2)+(9*10^1)+(3*10^0)}.

As you know, the decimal system uses the digits 0-9 to represent numbers. If we wanted to put a larger number in column 10^n (e.g., 10), we would have to multiply 10*10^n, which would give 10^(n+1), and be carried a column to the left. For example, putting ten in the 10^0 column is impossible, so we put a 1 in the 10^1 column, and a 0 in the 10^0 column, thus using two columns. Twelve would be 12*10^0, or 10^0(10+2), or 10^1+2*10^0, which also uses an additional column to the left (12).

The binary system works under the exact same principles as the decimal system, only it operates in base 2 rather than base 10. In other words, instead of columns being


10^2|10^1|10^0

they are
2^2|2^1|2^0

Instead of using the digits 0-9, we only use 0-1 (again, if we used anything larger it would be like multiplying 2*2^n and getting 2^n+1, which would not fit in the 2^n column. Therefore, it would shift you one column to the left. For example, "3" in binary cannot be put into one column. The first column we fill is the right-most column, which is 2^0, or 1. Since 3>1, we need to use an extra column to the left, and indicate it as "11" in binary (1*2^1) + (1*2^0).Binary Addition
Consider the addition of decimal numbers:

23
+48
___

We begin by adding 3+8=11. Since 11 is greater than 10, a one is put into the 10's column (carried), and a 1 is recorded in the one's column of the sum. Next, add {(2+4) +1} (the one is from the carry)=7, which is put in the 10's column of the sum. Thus, the answer is 71.

Binary addition works on the same principle, but the numerals are different. Begin with one-bit binary addition:

0 0 1
+0 +1 +0
___ ___ ___
0 1 1

1+1 carries us into the next column. In decimal form, 1+1=2. In binary, any digit higher than 1 puts us a column to the left (as would 10 in decimal notation). The decimal number "2" is written in binary notation as "10" (1*2^1)+(0*2^0). Record the 0 in the ones column, and carry the 1 to the twos column to get an answer of "10." In our vertical notation,

1
+1
___
10Multiplication in the binary system works the same way as in the decimal system:

1*1=1
1*0=0
0*1=0

101
* 11
____
101
1010
_____
1111

Binary Division
Follow the same rules as in decimal division. For the sake of simplicity, throw away the remainder.

For Example: 111011/11


10011 r 10
_______
11)111011
-11
______
101
-11
______
101
11
______
10

Decimal to Binary
Converting from decimal to binary notation is slightly more difficult conceptually, but can easily be done once you know how through the use of algorithms. Begin by thinking of a few examples. We can easily see that the number 3= 2+1. and that this is equivalent to (1*2^1)+(1*2^0). This translates into putting a "1" in the 2^1 column and a "1" in the 2^0 column, to get "11". Almost as intuitive is the number 5: it is obviously 4+1, which is the same as saying [(2*2) +1], or 2^2+1. This can also be written as [(1*2^2)+(1*2^0)]. Looking at this in columns,

2^2 | 2^1 | 2^0
1 0 1

or 101.

What we're doing here is finding the largest power of two within the number (2^2=4 is the largest power of 2 in 5), subtracting that from the number (5-4=1), and finding the largest power of 2 in the remainder (2^0=1 is the largest power of 2 in 1). Then we just put this into columns. This process continues until we have a remainder of 0. Let's take a look at how it works. We know that:

2^0=1
2^1=2
2^2=4
2^3=8
2^4=16
2^5=32
2^6=64
2^7=128
Binary numbers and arithmetic let you represent any amount you want using just two digits: 0 and 1. Here are some examples:

Decimal 1 is binary 0001
Decimal 3 is binary 0011
Decimal 6 is binary 0110
Decimal 9 is binary 1001



Each digit "1" in a binary number represents a power of two, and each "0" represents zero:

0001 is 2 to the zero power, or 1
0010 is 2 to the 1st power, or 2
0100 is 2 to the 2nd power, or 4
1000 is 2 to the 3rd power, or 8.


When you see a number like "0101" you can figure out what it means by adding the powers of 2:

0101 = 0 + 4 + 0 + 1 = 5
1010 = 8 + 0 + 2 + 0 = 10
0111 = 0 + 4 + 2 + 1 = 7