Binary Code
Did you know that everything a computer does is based on ones and zeroes? It's tough to imagine, because we hear people talk of the utterly gigantic numbers that computers "crunch". But all those large numbers - they're just comprised of ones and zeros. It's sort of like the computer is constructed by a bunch of lightswitches, and each lightswitch operates just a single lightbulb. On or Off. One or Zero. But if you brought all of those lightbulbs together, and said "Let's make each sequence of On-and-Off stand for a different number!" Ultimately then, you could see some pretty large numbers.
What do we mean by sequence? Let's suppose you had two lightswitches. There are four different ways you could throw those switches:
Both Off
First Off, Second On
First On, Second Off
Both On
Binary Code looks at each of those combinations and assigns a number to it, and the point values of those numbers will add up to anywhere from 0 to 52. A sequence might look like this: 00100100, and that's Binary Code.
The idea of binary code is frequently credited to German philosopher & mathematician Gottfried Leibniz in the late 1600s, who he also invented differential & integral calculus. Even so, he only popularized the idea’s applications (which would in contemporary times develop to be the basis of all computer programming & revolutionize the Digital Age). The thought of binary code itself has been around even far longer than him, with some of the earlier acknowledged writings by Indian mathematicians in the third century. Leibniz actually references the I Ching as a source of inspiration in his book, Mathematical, Scientific, and Technical Correspondence. 6 vols., 1672-96. There are many similarities between Leibniz’s original chart of 64 codes, and the chart of 64 kwae determinants from the I Ching’s Book of Changes.
Konrad Zuse's electromechanical "Z machines", the Z3 was the first operating machine featuring binary arithmetic, including floating point arithmetic and a standard of programmability; whose properties, with the addition of conditional branching, have frequently been the ones employed as standards in defining a computer. The Z3 was built with 2,000 relays. It had a clock frequency of ~5–10 Hz, and a word length of 22 bits. Calculations on the computer were executed in full binary floating point arithmetic. The Z3 scanned programs off a punched film. The machine was finished in 1941. On 12 May 1941, it was successfully demonstrated to an audience of scientists of the DVL (Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt, i.e. German Laboratory for Aviation), in Berlin.
The original Z3 was lost in 1943 during an Allied bombardment of Berlin. A fully functional replica was constructed in the 1960s by the originator's company Zuse KG and is on permanent exhibit in the Deutsches Museum. The Z3 was employed by federal government's German Aircraft Research Institute to perform statistical analyses of wing flutter in aircraft design. In 1998 the Z3 was proven to be Turing complete, thus being the world's first operational computer.
Morse code was the first binary code employed in telecommunications. Though W. F. Cooke and Charles Wheatstone had developed the electric telegraph originally in England (in 1830), it was Morse code code that popularized the use of the device. Morse code - contrary to most computer codes used today - was a variable-length code, i.e. different characters had different numbers of "bits" (dots and dashes).
Braille is an alphabet for the blind that applies a series of raised bumps that can be sensed by the schooled finger. Each dot placement can either be raised or not raised - therefore it is also a binary code.
Here are some additional binary codes used in computers and other electronic devices -as that is the area in which binary codes are used the most. After all, every "digital" device - from CDs to digital televisions to telephones to calculators and computers - uses some sort of binary code.
- Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) - popular in calculators
- 2'421 BCD - alternative BCD code
- Excess-3 code - another alternative BCD code
- Gray code - used with many optical sensors (including some bar codes)
- ASCII - used by computers to interpret text
- Baudot - text code used by teletypes in the 50's and 60's
- EBCDIC - an IBM alternative to ASCII
- MIDI code - used for electronic music
- RLL codes - used in storage devices like disk drives
- MP3 - an audio file format
- JPEG, MPEG - picture & video file formats
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