The Binary Game

In class we learned about the binary system and then played a game to practice this concept. I got up to level 4 in the game. Level 4 doesn't seem like much but it was harder than you'd think! The hardest part of this game was trying to add huge numbers in my head. Once, I had to add up to somewhere around 258 and it was very challenging to try to find the exact combination of numbers. At first I thought that I would hate the binary system because I am not a big fan of math but once I understood the concept it was actually very interesting. Binary counting is very useful and doesn't just have to be used for computers, you can count on your fingers as well. Each finger would represent a value, just like each card we used in class represented a value. Your pinkie finger is 1, ring 2, middle 4, pointer 8, and thumb 16. The binary system is used with computers because every letter in the alphabet can be represented by a number. A is 1, B is 2, Z is 26. You use the binary system to code for the letter you need. When a value is used it is represented by a 1 and when it is not used it is a 0. Therefore if you were going to say "Hi" it would be coded as 01000 (H is represented by 8) and 01001 (I is represented by 9. The computer uses only 0's and 1's to create a message.