What Are Binary Numbers? Part 2
How can you guess a secret number between 1 and 1,000 in no more than 10 tries? Why do smart phones come with 16, 32, or 64 GB of storage? And what do both of these questions have to do with binary numbers? Keep on reading to find out!
Jason Marshall, PhD
Listen
What Are Binary Numbers? Part 2
Is it possible to always be able to guess a secret number between 1 and 1,000 in no more than 10 tries? Why do smart phones come with 16, 32, 64 or some other strange number of gigabytes of storage? What do both of these questions have to do with binary numbers? In part 1 of this series on binary number basics, we learned what binary numbers are and how you can represent a decimal number (the kind that you’re used to) in binary form. Now that we’re all up to speed on the nuts and bolts of binary numbers, this week we’re going to have a bit of fun using them to solve brain teasers..
Recap: What Are Binary Numbers?
As we learned last time, the binary system is the simplest number system possible. In contrast to the decimal system’s ten symbols (0 through 9), the binary system uses only two (0 and 1). In the binary system we start counting at 0, then continue to 1, and then—since we’re all out of new symbols—we add a digit to make the binary number ‘10’ representing the number made of one 2 and zero 1s…aka 2. After ‘10’ is ’11’ (or 3), then ‘100’ (or 4), then ‘101’ (or 5), ‘110’ (or 6), ‘111’ (or 7), and so on.
Each binary digit represents the next higher power of 2. So the far right digit represent 2^0=1, the next represents 2^1=2, then 2^2=4, and so on. All you have to do to figure out the decimal equivalent of a binary number is add up all the powers of 2 that have a ‘1’ in their place. For example, since the binary number ‘1010’ has ‘1’s in the 4th digit (representing 2^3=8) and the 2nd digit (representing 2^1=2), it’s equivalent to the decimal number 8 + 2 = 10.
How to Guess a Number Using Binary Numbers
Now it’s time for some fun. I’m going to think of a number between 1 and 1,000 and I want you to guess it in no more than 10 tries. Sounds tough, right? After all, there are 1,000 possible numbers…but you only get 10 guesses! Well, it would be tough if you were just randomly guessing, but the key to our game is that each time you guess I’m going to tell you if my number is higher or lower. As you’ll soon see, this little change makes all the difference in the world.
To demonstrate how it works, I’m going to let you in on the secret number I’m thinking of: 100. So, what should your first guess be? For reasons that will become clear, it should always be 512. If I say “higher” to that guess, you should take half of 512—which is 256—and add it to your previous guess to make a new guess: 512 + 256 = 768. But since my secret number is 100, I would have actually said “lower.” That means you should really take half of 512 and subtract it from your previous guess to get your new guess: 512 – 256 = 256. Since this is still larger than my secret number, I’d once again say “lower.” You should then subtract half of 256—the number you added or subtracted during the last round of guessing—from your previous guess. So your new guess should be 256 – 128 = 128.
For each subsequent guess, the idea is to cut the previous value that you added or subtracted in half, and then add (if your guess is too low) or subtract (if your guess is too high) this new value from your previous guess. For my secret number of 100, the sequence of guesses you should make are:
-
Guess: 512. Response: Lower. Calculate: 512 / 2 = 256. Then…
-
Guess: 512 – 256 = 256. Response: Lower. “Calculate: 256 / 2 = 128. Then…
-
Guess: 256 – 128 = 128. Response: Lower. Calculate 128 / 2 = 64. Then…
-
Guess: 128 – 64 = 64. Response: Higher. Calculate 64 / 2 = 32. Then…
-
Guess: 64 + 32 = 96. Response: Higher. Calculate 32 / 2 = 16. Then…
-
Guess: 96 + 16 = 112. Response: Lower. Calculate 16 / 2 = 8. Then…
-
Guess: 112 – 8 = 104. Response: Lower. Calculate 8 / 2 = 4. Then…
-
Guess: 104 – 4 = 100. Response: Bingo!
As you can see, you managed to guess my secret number in only 8 tries! And no matter what my number is, this method of guessing will always find it in no more than 10 tries.
What Do These Guesses Mean?
But what’s the method behind this apparent madness? Well, if you think about it, you’ll see that each number you added or subtracted from your previous guess was a power of 2. Which means that each of your guesses actually represents a digit in the 10-digit binary representation of my secret number. A response of “higher” to your guess means that the digit is a ‘1,’ while a response of ‘lower’ means that the digit is a ‘0.’ The end result of this clever sequence of guesses is my secret number…written in binary form! Who knew binary numbers could be so useful, right?
Phones, Computers, and Binary Numbers
Actually, a lot of people knew. Which is why the phone in your pocket has 8, 16, 32, or some other power-of-2 number of gigabytes of storage. As you probably know, computers store information in the form of something called bits (short for “binary digits”), each of which hold either 0 or 1. In order for the brain inside a computer to find and use these storage locations, they must be assigned an address (just as a house must be assigned an address for mail to be delivered to it). As it turns out, this process of assigning addresses works best if all of the addresses can be written as binary numbers. And in order for that to happen, there must be a power-of-2 number of bits. Which is exactly what your phone has!
But that’s not the only relationship between phones, computers, and binary numbers. In fact, the deeper you look, the more you find. As an example, next week we’re going to take a look at how computers use binary numbers to do addition. After which, you’ll finally understand how a brainless piece of plastic can add faster than you!
Wrap Up
Okay, that’s all the math we have time for today. Remember to become a fan of the Math Dude on Facebook where you’ll find lots of great math posted throughout the week. If you’re on Twitter, please follow me there, too. Finally, please send your math questions my way via Facebook, Twitter, or email at mathdude@quickanddirtytips.comcreate new email.
Until next time, this is Jason Marshall with The Math Dude’s Quick and Dirty Tips to Make Math Easier. Thanks for reading, math fans!
About the Author
Jason Marshall is the author of The Math Dude’s Quick and Dirty Guide to Algebra. He provides clear explanations of math terms and principles, and his simple tricks for solving basic algebra problems will have even the most math-phobic person looking forward to working out whatever math problem comes their way.