Does anyone know it? I would like to learn, and was wondering where a good place to start would be.

:|

Best of luck with that. My brain would sizzle and fall out my ear if I even attempted to learn that! ;D

Ummm, I *used* to know it, back in the good ol' days. xD Something to do with powers of two.

So, you set up a table like this (for example)...

32 16 8 4 2 1

these numbers can also be written as...

2^5 2^4 2^3 2^2 2^1 2^0

then, depending on which number you wish to convert to binary, you put a "1" or a "0" in each column.

For example, if I wanted to represent the number 3 in binary, It'd be 2^1 + 2^0.

Our table would look like...

2^5 2^4 2^3 2^2 2^1 2^0

0 0 0 0 1 1

So 3 in binary would be 11.

A harder number... for example, 461...

461 = 256 + 128 + 64 + 8 + 4 + 1

(256) (128) (64) (32) (16) (8) (4) (2) (1)
2^8 2^7 2^6 2^5 2^4 2^3 2^2 2^1 2^0

1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1

So 461 = 111001101

Well, at least that's how I was taught. xD

Hope that makes sense!

Wow, that's more than I remember!

128 64 32 16 8 4 1 is what I learnt

We had to take a computer class in 9th grade that taught binary! I can't believe how much of it you remembered! :P I remembered the 32 16 8 4 2 1 and the powers of two.. after that my brain sort of just.. shut off ;).

Yeah, that's when I learned it too. xD I think the only reason why I've remembered in now was because in first year uni, I reactivated the knowledge. xD I went to a trivia night and they asked us to convert 4063 (or some massive number) into binary. I was the only one at our table who knew how to do it. xD Granted, I had no idea about the host of entertainment/history/media/art questions they also asked. xD

Yeah, that's when I learned it too. xD I think the only reason why I've remembered it now was because in first year uni, I reactivated the knowledge. xD I went to a trivia night and they asked us to convert 4063 (or some massive number) into binary. I was the only one at our table who knew how to do it. xD Granted, I had no idea about the host of entertainment/history/media/art questions they also asked. xD

Oops, double post. xD Tried to stop the browser in time to fix a typo. Alas, I failed!

Wikipedia explains it, using a method different to mine (which means I'm probably wrong xD).

Ahhh, it messed up all my spacing! :< Grrrr. What a piece of shizzle. xD

GOSH, YO - WE LEARNT THIS IN MATHS WHEN I WAS SEVEN YEARS OLD, AND I DIDN'T UNDERSTAND IT AT ALL! AND THEN AT A DIFFERENT SCHOOL, WE DID IT FOR GCSE MATHS, WHEN I WAS 14, AND I WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO UNDERSTOOD IT (CLEARLY WHAT I'D LEARNT AS A SEVEN YEAR OLD HAD SOMEHOW STUCK IN MY SUBCONSCIOUS!) AND THEN THEY TOOK IT OUT OF THE GCSE SYLLABUS SO WE DIDN'T NEED TO KNOW IT AFTER ALL. GOSH, YO - I HAVE NEVER USED THE BLOODY THING. IT HAS BEEN QUITE POINTLESS FOR ME.

BUT HERE'S HOW IT WORKS (I KNOW TERESA HAS ALREADY EXPLAINED IT, BUT I WILL EXPLAIN IT IN DIFFERENT WORDS, BECAUSE IT'S ONE OF THOSE THINGS WHERE DIFFERENT EXPLANATIONS WORK FOR DIFFERENT PEOPLE, BECAUSE IT'S A KIND OF PARADIGM SHIFT). IN OUR CURRENT NUMBER SYSTEM, WE USE BASE 10. ONCE YOU GET TO 9, THEN YOU START ALL OVER AGAIN WITH 1, BUT WITH A 0 AFTER IT, TO PUSH THE 1 INTO A NEW POSITION, TO SHOW THAT IT NOW REPRESENTS A TEN. LIKE, THERE IS NO NEW SYMBOL FOR 10 - YOU USE ALL THE PREVIOUS SYMBOLS ALL OVER AGAIN BUT IN DIFFERENT POSITIONS. BINARY IS THE SAME, BUT IN BASE 2 - SO ONCE YOU GET TO 1, YOU MUST START AGAIN. SO YOU ONLY USE 0'S AND 1'S. LIKE, 2 IS THE EQUIVALENT (NOT IN VALUE BUT IN POSITION) OF DECIMAL 10.

SO, IN DECIMAL, YOU HAVE 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

IN BINARY, YOU HAVE 1, 10 (WHICH IN VALUE IS THE SAME AS 1, 2)

GOING ON FURTHER TO THE EQUIVALENT OF DECIMAL 10, YOU HAVE 1, 10, 11, 100, 101, 110, 111, 1000, 1001, 1010

LIKE, YOU KNOW IN DECIMAL, YOU HAVE COLUMNS OF THOUSANDS, HUNDREDS, TENS, UNITS. WELL, IN BINARY, YOU HAVE COLUMNS OF EIGHTS, FOURS, TWOS, UNITS. IN DECIMAL EACH NEW COLUMN IS THE OLD ONE MULTIPLIED BY TEN (SO THE NEXT ONE IS TEN THOUSAND). IN BINARY EACH NEW COLUMN IS THE OLD ONE MULTIPLIED BY TWO - SO THE NEXT ONE IS SIXTEENS.

GOSH, YO - IT IS QUITE FUN. HOW CAN I USE IT IN REAL LIFE? WILL IT HELP ME BECOME A COMPUTER PROGRAMMER OR SOMETHING?

Out of curiosity, are you talking about the base two numeral system which Teresa and Puck talked about, or a binary encoding system that computers use?
An example of the latter:
A = 01000001
B = 01000010
...
Z = 01011010
a = 01100001
b = 01100010
and so on for all unicode characters.

Strike that, not unicode. That was ASCII.

I was referring to the one that computers use, A-Z ASCII. Funny thing is, I didnt anticipate getting any responses to this thread, so I Googled it last night, and you can literally learn how to do it in under 20 minutes lol. Thank you everyone, though! I appreciate the help!

Yep! Remember though, it goes from 32 (space) to 126 (~), or in binary from 00100000 to 01111110. The wikipedia page on ASCII is really helpful.

I never learnt this at school! What crazy ass schools did you guys go to?! ;D

I'd bet money it wasnt' an american school ;D

IT WAS BEFORE YOUR TIME, YOUNG LADY, YO! IT WAS BACK IN THE DAY WHEN COMPUTERS WERE JUST HOVERING ON THE HORIZON AND SCHOOL TEACHERS WERE ALL 'OMG, COMPUTERS ARE TAKING OVER THE WORLD! CHILDREN NEED TO LEARN BINARY TO SURVIVE! LET US TORTURE THEIR POOR SEVEN-YEAR-OLD SOULS WITH IT, BEFORE THEY'VE EVEN GRASPED THE CONCEPT OF DECIMAL!' (ALTHOUGH THAT DOESN'T EXPLAIN HOW TERESA KNOWS IT, AS SHE IS A VERITABLE YOUNG'UN TOO! MAYBE IT'S BECAUSE AUSTRALIA IS, LIKE, FAR AWAY AND UPSIDE DOWN, SO COMPUTERS TOOK LONGER BEFORE THEY HOVERED ON THE HORIZON THERE! ;D).

Not really. xD It was because I elected to do Computer Studies in year 9. That's when I learned it. That was almost 9 years ago.

But it's true, Australia tends to be behind on many things. xD They got computers at our primary school the year I finished there. xD That was 1998. They got the internet the following year (by which time I had started high school). My high school had the internet that year (1999), and I'm pretty sure it was a recent addition.

Binary? Meh. I prefer things that are in 0-F. Hahaha, hexadecimal.

Before I actually took the time to figure any of this out, I found this here translator:

http://home2.paulschou.net/tools/xlate/

From what I can tell, it's accurate AND has hexidecimal. Yay for being lazy!! :D

i have no idea. my boyfriend does though. a guy at work has a binary tattoo. i think it's awesome heh.

Hahaha. What does it translate to? Anything meaningful? xD

his father's birth date i believe. pretty cool way of doing it.