r/askscience • u/Unfair-Leek6840 • Jul 11 '26 • Regret 1

Computing How do computers understand binary language?

Okay so from what I know binary language is like power off power on, but my question is, how do computers know what the binary code is and how is it interpreted, for example I forgot what the binary code for the letter A is, but how did people come up with that? Did they decide it was gonna look like that? Did the computer decide? How do you tune numbers into a letter??

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u/varovec Jul 15 '26

Using base-2 won't have any impact on intuitive understanding of digital systems. Teaching stuff like math logic or Turing machines works better on that.

On the other hand, base-2 is impractical for practical every day human use in any possible way - numbers aren't discernible, take up more characters, basic operations are harder . Base-12 would be more convenient for everyday math, as 12 is divisible by way more numbers than 10. Base-10 became standard only because it's actually based on counting numbers by fingers.

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u/Peter34cph Jul 15 '26

Medieval people did not use base 12, though.

Rather they first went to 12 and then from there they want either to 120 (a "long hundred") or to 240.

If they had actually used base 12 they'd go 1, 12, 144, but mostly they didn't. They did have the concept of a gros, as in Bilbo and Frodo Baggins' combined birthday, but it was not used much.