Computers - Binary Fact Sheet

Activities

Print out this page to use as a secret code. (Get an adult if you need help to print this page)
On a piece of paper try writing your name in secret code using binary. See if your parents can use the code to decode your name.
Give copies of the binary code to your friends and use it to write secret messages.

ASCII-(American Standard for Information Interchange) Chart

ASCII is the standard (a standard is when people agree to do something the same way) for converting binary to letters of the alphabet.

CAPITAL				Lower case	
LETTER		BINARY        	Letter		BINARY
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A		01000001	a		11100001

B		01000010	b		11100010

C		11000011	c		01100011

D		01000100	d		11100100

E		11000101	e		01100101

F		11000110	f		01100110

G		01000111	g		11100111

H		01001000	h		11101000

I		11001001	i		01101001

J		11001010	j		01101010

K		01001011	k		11101011

L		11001100	l		01101100

M		01001101	m		11101101

N		01001110	n		11101110

O		11001111	o		01101111

P		01010000	p		11110000

Q		11010001	q		01110001

R		11010010	r		01110010

S		01010011	s		11110011

T		11010100	t		01110100

U		01010101	u		11110101

V		01010110	v		11110110

W		11010111	w		01110111

X		11011000	x		01111000

Y		01011001	y		11111001

Z		01011010	z		11111010
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The binary code also equals numbers

Binary numbers are in base 2. The numbers we normally use are in base 10.
This means that each place in a number is equal to the base number (2 or 10 or whatever base is being used) times itself a certain number of times.
In the number 111 (one hundred eleven) the 1 is equal to 10 to the 0th (zeroth) power which means zero 10's so there are no 10's but includes every number less than 10. This is how we get the numbers 0 - 9.
The 10's place is equal to 10 to the 1st power which is one 10. So the number in the 10's place is equal to 10 times the number in that place.
For example:
if the number in the tens place is 2 this is equal to 2 x 10,
if it is 30 this is 3 x 10 and so on.
The number in the 100's place is 10 to the 2nd power which is 2 10's or 10 x 10 which equals 100.
So the number in the 100's place is equal to that number times 10 x 10.
For example:
if the number in the 100's place is 1 this is 1 x 10 x 10 = 100,
if it is 2 this is 2 x 10 x 10 = 200.
This is how base 10 works for every place in a number. The 1000's place is 10 to the 3rd power 10 x 10 x 10.

Acitivity Idea

Why don't you try to figure out the powers of 10 for each place from 10,000 to 1,000,000.

Binary Table

Binary numbers (base 2) work the same way but each place is a power of 2.
To write a number to a power we use the ^ symbol. So 2 to the 0th power is 2^0.

NUMBER		BINARY		BASE 2		2 X ?
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0		0000		2^0		2 x 0 or zero 2's = 0

1		0001		2^0		2 x 0 plus 1 = 1

2		0010		2^1		2 x 1 or one 2 = 2

3		0011		2^1 & 2^0	2 x 1 plus 2 x 0 plus 1 = 3

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	2^3	2^2	2^1	2^0

0 = 	0	0	0	0

1 =	0	0	0	1

2 =	0	0	1	0	equals one 2

3 =	0	0	1	1	equals one 2 plus one 1

4 =	0	1	0	0	equals one 2^2 = one 2 x 2 equals 4

5 = 	0	1	0	1	equals one 2^2 plus one 2^0 equals 4 + 1

6 = 	0	1	1	0	equals one 2^2 + one 2^1 + zero 2^0 = 4 + 2

7 = 	0	1	1	1	equals one 2^2 + one 2^2 + one 2^0 = 4 + 2 + 1

8 = 	1	0	0	0	equals one 2^3 = 2 x 2 x 2 = 8

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More Activity Ideas

*Try to finish this chart all the way to the number 15.
**Add another place (2^4) and complete the chart to the number 31.

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