Sunday, May 19, 2013

Bit patterns in a computer



The language that a computer understands is very simple, so simple that it only has 2 different letters 1 and 0. This is called Binary. Everything you see on a computer, images, sounds, games, text, videos, spreadsheets, websites etc. Whatever it is, it will be stored as a string of ones and zeroes.
monochrome image of a smiley face
Bit - a standard unit to measure computer memory, consisting of of a value that is either 1 or 0

Byte - a standard unit to measure computer memory, consisting of 8 bits. e.g. 10101011

Exercise: Bit patterns in a Computer
How do computers store data?
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Answer :
as binary values, using a pattern of 1s and 0s
What sort of data can be stored in binary?
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Answer :
  • Video
  • Sound
  • Picture
  • Text
  • Code
  • Spreadsheet
  • Game
  • etc
What does the following binary string represent: 10011100
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Answer :
This could be anything:
  • sound data
  • picture data
  • text ASCII for œ
  • unsigned integer = 156
  • video data
  • etc
How many bits in a byte?
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Answer :
8
How many bits in a 7 bytes?
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Answer :
7 * 8 = 56

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