Binary Concepts - The Language of Computers

Enter your name or words (ASCII [" askey "] characters) using the binary code on the chart to your right.

1. Find the decimal value for the first letter of your name on the chart below
2. Convert the decimal to binary using the decimal value buttons
   Example: B=66
   To enter the binary code corresponding to 66:
   1. Click the button marked 64 to change it from a " 0 " to a " 1"
   2. Click the button marked 2 to change it from a " 0 " to a " 1 "
      (All other buttons should be " 0 ".)
      This equals " 66 ", the binary code for the letter " B "
3. Return to all zeros
4. Continue with the next character
5. Use backspace to delete errors
6. Press clear to start over

By clicking on the decimal values you can change the binary code from zeros to ones and back.

Binary Code Decimal Value
Decimal Value ASCII Value
Text Display

What's Happening?

Computers use a special language to store information. Everything you see on the screen, hear on the speakers, or print out is an electrical representation of zeroes (0s) and ones (1s). Each 0 and 1 is called a bit.

A bit is the smallest piece of data a computer stores.
In a memory chip:

• A high electrical charge = 1

• A low electrical charge = 0

When a computer gets input from the keyboard, mouse, modem, etc. the information is converted to 0s and 1s. The computer sees the combination of bits in a specific grouping of eight. Each grouping of eight 1s and 0s is a byte. There is a different byte for each character on the keyboard. These bytes, which symbolize text, sounds, and graphics, make up the ASCII code.