Welcome to the Digital World,
In this task you will learn:
- What binary numbers are.
- Why binary numbers are important.
- How words are represented in Binary (What the ASCII Table is).
- What hexadecimal numbers are.
- How hexadecimal numbers are used to make binary numbers easier for humans to read.
What Binary Numbers are and Why they are important
ASCII Text Representation
Task: Write your name in binary.
Below is a table that shows how the ASCII format is used to represent English characters in binary. Look at the patterns carefully.
Using the table above can you write your name using binary?
Extension: Can extrapolate and figure out how to use lowercase letters too!
Hexadecimal
These days it is common for numbers to be 64, 128, and even 256 bits long. Thus it would take you a long, long time to write out a single binary number. To make reading binary numbers easier we use another Number System, Hexadecimal.
Convert your Binary name to Hexadecimal using the following table:
Once completed, you’ll see that it is visually much shorter, and easier for a human read.