When you hear the word binary, you might picture lines of code from The Matrix — endless streams of ones and zeros flying down the screen. 💻 But don’t worry, binary numbers aren’t as mysterious (or scary) as they looks. In fact, it’s the simplest number system in the world… and it’s the reason your computer, phone and even your toaster (if it’s a smart one!) actually work.
What is Binary?
Most of us use the decimal system every day — numbers from 0 to 9. Binary is similar, but instead of ten digits, it only has two:
👉 0 and 1
That’s it! Just two little numbers.
Think of binary like a light switch:
- 0 = off
- 1 = on
Put enough switches together, and you can represent anything — letters, images, sounds, videos, you name it.
Why Do Computers Love Binary?
Computers are made of billions of tiny electrical components that can either carry a signal (on) or not (off). Trying to teach them decimal numbers like 5, 7, or 9 would be complicated. But telling them on or off? That’s their language.
So, every piece of data you use — that funny cat video, your emails, even this blog post — is made up of billions of 0s and 1s under the hood.
Why It Matters
Binary is the foundation of all modern computing. Without it, there would be no internet, no smartphones, and definitely no online shopping sprees. 🛒 Every game, app, and website is powered by this simple “on/off” logic.
Convert Decimal Numbers To Binary
🧮 How to Convert Decimal to Binary (Easy Way)
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Pick your decimal number.
Let’s say you want to convert 10. -
Divide by 2.
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Write down the remainder (0 or 1).
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Keep dividing the result by 2 until you reach 0.
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Read the remainders backwards.
That’s your binary number! Computers like binary numbers to be 8 characters (or ‘bits’) long. So we add 0s to the front of the number until it reaches 8 characters long.
Example: Convert 10 to Binary
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10 ÷ 2 = 5, remainder 0
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5 ÷ 2 = 2, remainder 1
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2 ÷ 2 = 1, remainder 0
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1 ÷ 2 = 0, remainder 1
Now read the remainders backwards from bottom to top:
👉 1010
So, 10 in decimal = 00001010 in binary ✅
(don’t forget to add the leading 0s to make it up to eight characters long).
What About Letters?
Numbers are all very well, but what about letters? How can a letter become a bonary number consisting of just 1s and 0s?
Computers don’t “see” letters the way we do. Instead, they turn every character (like A, B, or p) into numbers using a code called ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange). Then, those numbers are written in binary (0s and 1s).
ASCII (pronounced “ask-ee”) stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. It’s a system created in the 1960s to give every letter, number, and symbol a unique number so that computers could store and share text consistently. For example, the capital letter A is represented by the number 65, while a space is 32. Computers don’t work with letters directly, so ASCII acts like a dictionary, turning human-readable characters into numbers, which can then be converted into binary (0s and 1s) for machines to understand.
You can view the standard ASCII table here.
Here’s the step-by-step conversion process:
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Find the ASCII number for the letter.
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Example: The letter A = 65 in ASCII. – Check the ASCII table link about and look for the red letter A – see for yourself that A is reprented by 65 according to the table.
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Convert that number into binary.
- 65 divided by 2 = 32, remainder 1.
- 32 divided by 2 = 16, remainder 0.
- 16 divided by 2 = 8, remainder 0.
- 8 divided by 2 = 4, remainder 0.
- 4 divided by 2 = 2, remainder 0.
- 2 divided by = 1, remainder 0.
- 1 divided by 2 = 0, remainder 1.
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65 in binary = 01000001 (we added a 0 to the front to make it up to 8 bits long).
Now you’ve got the binary code for your letter!
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A → 01000001.
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Take It To The Next Level
Let’s try a whole word in binary… hold on to your hats!
What about the word ‘Patel’ (a tribute to one of our biggest fans).
Refer to the ASCII table here.
Capital P in ASCII is 80.
Lower case a is 97.
Lower case t is 116.
Lower case e is 101.
Lower case l is 108.
We need to convert 90, 97, 117, 101 and 108 to binary.
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80 →
01010000 -
97 →
01100001 -
116 →
01110100 -
101 →
01100101 -
108 →
01101100
The word ‘Patel’ in binary is…. (drum roll please):
01010000 01100001 01110100 01100101 01101100
Binary numbers are the foundation of all computing. Because computers are built from tiny electrical circuits that can only be on (1) or off (0), binary provides the perfect way to represent and process information. Everything you see on a screen—whether it’s text, images, music, or video—is stored and transmitted as patterns of 0s and 1s. Without binary, computers wouldn’t have a simple, reliable language to operate, and the digital world we rely on every day simply wouldn’t exist.
