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Introducing Binary

⏱️ Do It Now

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Lesson 1 - Summer 1 - Introducing Binary


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📝 Do It Now

Topic from which to answer questions

Do each of the following:

  • Explain what is meant by a variable
  • Explain what the print() function does
  • Explain what functions are, and why they might be used in a program

🎯 Learning Objectives

  • LO1: Be able to explain why electronic signals are stored as 1s an 0s
  • LO2: Be able to describe how computers store denary (human) numbers in binary form
  • LO3: Be able to apply knowledge of binary and denary in converting between both number systems

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🖥️

How Computers Work

  • Computers are made from millions of microscopic switches called Transistors
  • All data on computers is stored as 1s and 0s; a system called Binary

Transistors

Transistors are tiny electronic switches that can be switched on by passing an electrical current through their base plate.

Because each transistor can be switched on by an electrical current one transistor can be used to control another. This enables us to create patterns (and ultimately, complex things such as computer software).

Binary

Because switches (such as transistors) can only be on or off, we can only use two values to represent their current state

Computer Scientists decided to represent these two states with 1 and 0

  • 1 = ON
  • 0 = OFF

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🔢

How Numbers Are Represented in Binary

  • Our system for representing numbers is called denary
  • Computers only use two digits: 1 and 0
  • Each position in a binary number is called a place value
  • We add the place values containing 1 to get the denary number

1s and 0s

The number system used by computers is called binary, which only has two digits:

  • 1 = ON
  • 0 = OFF

This matches how electronic switches work.

Place Value

Each position in a binary number is called a place value.

Starting from the right, the 1 or 0 in each place value is worth double the previous place value

Place Values8421
Binary Number1010

Examples

Remember, we only add the place values that contain 1

Example 1: 0001

8421
0001

= 1

Example 2: 0010

8421
0010

= 2

Example 3: 0101

8421
0101

4 + 1 = 5

Example 4: 1010

8421
1010

8 + 2 = 10

Example 5: 1111

8421
1111

8 + 4 + 2 + 1 = 15

📝 Activity 1

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📝 Activity 1

Complete each of the following:

  1. Explain what transistors are, and how they work
  2. Explain why binary uses 1s and 0s
  3. Explain what is meant by denary
  4. Explain how binary place values work
  5. Explain how binary numbers are used to represent denary numbers

⌨️ Practical Activity

You will now practice converting denary numbers into binary and vice versa.

Click on This Link


  • Complete 10 correctly (you can make some mistakes, but must still have 10 of them correct).
  • Click the View Score button to see your results
  • Screenshot your results and paste the table into OneNote
  • Make sure your give your screenshot a title


Additional Binary Number Challenges

See how high a score you can get with the Cisco Binary Game

Plenary Activity

📝 MWB Reflection Task

Open the mini-whiteboard app in a new tab

Your teacher will start with these leading questions:

  • Convert 71 into binary
  • Convert 11111111 into denary
  • Convert 223 into binary