This was awesome for everyone speaking English but the European world was unhappy at not being able to write their favourite ä, é and friends. The numbers: 72 101 108 108 111Ĭan be mechanically converted (or “decoded”) into: H e l l o As long as you know the mapping you can convert numbers to letters and back again. It assigns lowercase letters, uppercase letters, numbers, punctuation marks and formatting symbols to values between 0 and 127 (2 7). For example, English-language text can be expressed as bytes using an encoding called ASCII (yes, pronounced “ass-key”). Secondly, eight bits allow for 2 8 or 256 different values. Once you have a component that works on bytes it’s easier to make one that works on multiples of bytes than on fractions. It’s much easier to work with values that are a power of two, such as 8 (2 3). Each pairing allows the new component to handle values that are twice as big. These pairs are then combined with other pairs and so on. Why eight and not seven or nine bits to a byte? Why can’t we have 1.5 bytes? Firstly, complex components handling large values are built from simpler components handling smaller values by pairing them together. Values in computers are expressed as multiples of bytes. The computing industry has managed to agree on making eight bits the basic building block. Is 010101011010101 one number of 15 bits or three numbers of 5 bits? There’s no way to tell just by looking at the bit pattern. We need to decide how many bits should be in each binary number. So adding more bits allows for a greater range of values. Adding an extra bit doubles the number of possible values. Try writing out all of the different combinations of three bits ( 000, 001, 010 and so on). The principle is exactly the same in binary, except we use 2 n: 2 4 In general n columns can express 10 n values. You might remember learning in school how the right-most column in a number is the units, the next one to the left is the tens, the next the hundreds and so on. Each new digit allows ten times more numbers: 10 3 How can we express a value greater than decimal 2 in binary? Well, in decimal if we want to express a value greater than 9 we just add more digits. Having only two possible values doesn’t seem all that great. Computers use binary because it’s easier to implement in circuitry. The equivalent in the decimal system is a digit, which can be one of ten values: 0-9. Bits and bytesĪ binary choice has only two options. Don’t let your eyes glaze over when you see hexadecimal. Binary is important to understand because it’s literally what computers are based on.
![bits in a byte bits in a byte](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fJnsgqOUXbU/T3RzCWZtKpI/AAAAAAAAANk/3NOBQjjThdo/s1600/8677_a7a1_960.jpeg)
![bits in a byte bits in a byte](https://www.greenvelope.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/hot1.png)
In front of each clue we have added its number and position on the crossword puzzle for easier navigation.You can’t go very far in computer science and programming without encountering binary and hexadecimal.
![bits in a byte bits in a byte](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-a_O-yzzMaPM/UW01t9snhCI/AAAAAAAAAlM/hFremHJAhFw/s1600/binary.fw.png)
If you are done solving this clue take a look below to the other clues found on today's puzzle in case you may need help with any of them. This clue was last seen on NYTimes JPuzzle.