Easy Way to Count in Binary! 1's and 0's

Have you every wanted to count like a computer, or just wondered how computers count this is the instructable for you!

First we need a little information of binary. Computers have 2 numbers in there system except there not numbers there switches. 1 meaning "ON" (like a light bulb) or 0 meaning "OFF"

So...

10110011

would be...

On, off, on, on, off, off, on, on

Then the computer interprets that into its numbering system, which later may convert it into ASCII. Correct 8-bit binary only has 8 digits. There are 16, 32, 64, and 128 bit processors that take more numbers than just 8 at a time. This tutorial is for 8-bit.

Materials:
Paper and Pencil
(optional) Genius to help

On the paper write this on the top.

This is the 8-bit binary cheat sheet. Column 8 (the one all the way to the right) is 1, column 7 is just a double of the earlier column, etc.

"Binary Cheat Sheet:

128 - 64 - 32 - 16 - 8 - 4 - 2 - 1"

and pick a number between 1 and 255

My number is 175

Analyzing your number is very easy, here how it works.

Get your paper and right down your number under your Cheat Sheet.

First does the first number (128) fit in your number? The reason you check this, is because it helps you know if it is a 1 or a 0. Which makes up your number.

128 fits 175

If so subtract your number by the number you checked, then repeat for the rest of the numbers. Also if it did fit that means its a 1 and if it doesn't its a zero. This prepares the number for the next digit in the binary number.

so I'll start over...

175 - 128 = 47 *it fits so its a one* (1 _ _ _ _ _ _ _)

47 - 64 = -17 *Invalid so its a zero* (10 _ _ _ _ _ _)

47 - 32 = 15 *it fits so its a one* (101 _ _ _ _ _)

15 - 16 = -1 *Invalid so its a zero* (1010 _ _ _ _)

15 - 8 = 7 *it fits so its a one* (10101 _ _ _)

7 - 4 = 3 *it fits so its a one* (101011 _ _)

3 - 2 = 1 *it fits so its a one* (1010111 _)

1 - 1 = 0 *it fits so its a one* (10101111)

If you didn't get zero you did something wrong and go back and check your work.

If you did everything correctly, you should have a 8 digit number. Like so, 10101111.

Thanks for reading my instructable.