Question

Whats a good example to show how computer read binary. How do basic switches 0-1 give us the very thing we see on the screen today?

Answer 1

Our every day computer reads in binary. Binary is simple digits such at 0 and 1. What we see a letter on microsoft word, a computer will see numbers such as "0011010010010101010010" And that is how the computers use two basic digits for our everyday use. Hope I helped. I took programming and game and simulations.

Answer 2

But what I want to show is just how these gates work together to form that word you see. How does a computer understand 1001010 as the letter X, im sure the 10101 have gone through as 1001010 before (different voltages 0volts off and 5 volts on)

Answer 3

Because early programmers took a machine and a memory hardrive and programmed it. Just like a calculator, we took a memory stick and programmed it to where it knows EVERY problem we give it. Like a calculators computer would see 101001 as 5, well if we had to learn in binary, it would be really hard, so they make it easy for us and show us the letter. Do you get it?

Answer 4

Yes I understand it but im looking for a practical way to show kids the inner workings just how the program programs. Good example is how you can program (with punch card) how something is understood

Answer 5

in Python you can put
>>> bin(173)
and it displays...
'0b10101101'

Answer 6

how is that python any help?

Answer 7

You could show them that say, 173 is stored in the computer as 10101101...?

Answer 8

With some (not too much) logic and electronic knowledge, you can make a very simple calculator, building logical ports by arranging the circuits parallel or in series, depending on the port you wish to make. With it you can make some binary sums and multiplications.
To get deeper in 'translating' the bits to readable data, you would need some computer architecture concepts (assembly language, maybe), but this makes things considerably harder.

Answer 9

Using a Simple X-OR gate and AND gate you can build a circuit that add two one bit digit

Answer 10

You could just show the kids by restricting their universe. Start by telling them to imagine that they can not write with letters anymore. They can just use numbers. The alternative is to use a number to map to each letter: for example, A could be '10'. This is actually true and is what we call the "ASCII encoding". Then, tell them that they can no longer use numbers, only 0 and 1. The alternative now is to encode each number into a combination of 0's and 1's. Then, 1 for example could be 00000001, 2 could be 00000010, 3 could be 00000011, and so on. That's kind of how a computer works: each 1 is like a switch turned up and a 0 a switch turned down, or something like that. So, by switching up and down a combination of 1's and 0's, that become numbers after decoding binary, which become letters according to the ASCII table (or whichever encoding you are using).