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Lesson 11 Number System

Computers represent data using bits that are either on or off. A group of 8 bits is called a byte, which can represent one character. The number of possible combinations using a certain number of bits can be calculated by 2 to the power of that number of bits. A byte is the basic unit used to store a character on a computer and also to measure storage capacity.

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Claire Gumahad
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37 views

Lesson 11 Number System

Computers represent data using bits that are either on or off. A group of 8 bits is called a byte, which can represent one character. The number of possible combinations using a certain number of bits can be calculated by 2 to the power of that number of bits. A byte is the basic unit used to store a character on a computer and also to measure storage capacity.

Uploaded by

Claire Gumahad
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Instructor: Ms. Krystel Jane L.

Ajias
Subject: IT 100 (Computer Fundamentals)
Lesson: No. 10

How Computers Represent Data

Computers need data to work with, but that data must be represented in a specific way for the computer’s hardware to accept and understand it.
When you type on a keyboard and the information passes from the input device to the output device in a manner that is probably not what you
expect. The letter Z is not passed inside you system looking anything like a Z; it is represented by unit of information called bits. A bit is a
single circuit that either contains a current or does not. The binary digits of 0 and 1 are used as a means of representing the off/on state of a
computer switch, or a bit. In the Off state, current is not flowing through the switch and is represented by the digit 0. In the On state, current is
flowing through the switch and is represented by the digit 1. The bit is the smallest piece of data a computer can. Remember that the use of 1
and 0 are for human representation; it is the current that is actually flowing through the circuitry of the computer that the system understands.

Binary Digit 0 1
Bit (circuitry) No Current Current
Status Off On

Representing Data as Bits and Bytes

Computers do not use decimal system to represent numbers or characters. Rather, computers use a series of circuits whose pattern of off/on
current is converted into strings of binary digits called binary numbers.

Keyboard Character Binary Number Representation


R 01010010₂
S 01010011₂
T 01010100₂
L 01001100₂
N 01001110₂
E 01000101₂

To grasp this idea, it might help to think of a bit as acting like a light switch. Both a light switch and a bit have the same two states, off and on. 1
presents ON/True statements and 0 represents OFF/False statement. The number of possible combinations of on/off patterns is calculated by the
formula 2ᴺ, where N is the number of switches. So how many switches (bits) are needed to represent an entire keyboard, which can contain 128
to 256 different characters, including all the letters of the alphabet (both uppercase and lowercase), the numbers 0 through 9, and punctuation
marks? The answer is somewhere between 7 and 8 because 2 ⁷= 128 and 2 ⁸= 256.

Number of BITS Number of Possibilities


2⁰ = 1

1 2¹ = 2
2 2² = 4
3 2³ = 8
4 2⁴ =16
5 2⁵ = 32
6 2⁶ = 64
7 2⁷ = 128
8…… 2⁸ = 256…..
A byte is group of 8 bits and is the method of representing one character of data, such as the essential numbers (0-9), the basic letter of the
alphabet like the character Z (uppercase and lowercase), and the most common punctuation symbols. For this reason, you can use the byte as a
base line unit to express the amount of information a computer’s storage device can hold. Because it takes eight bits (on/off switches) to make a
byte, and eight bits result and 256 possible on/off combinations, you’ll see the number 8 and multiples of eight appearing behind the scenes in
many computer functions, application, and references to storage capacity.

Storage Text

Unit Abbrevia Amount Equivalent

tion
Byte B 8 bits 1 character
Kilobyte KB 1 thousand bytes 1 page
Megabyte MB 1 million bytes 1,000 pages
Gigabyte GB 1 billion bytes 1,000 books
Terabyte TB 1 trillion bytes 1 million
books

Storage Text

Unit Abbreviation Amount Equivalent

Petabyte PB 1 quadrillion byte 1billion books


Exabyte EB 1 quintillion bytes 7 500 libraries
the size of the
Library of
Congress
Zetabyte ZB 1 sextillion bytes Not able to
estimate
Yottabyte YB 1 septillion bytes Not able to
estimate

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