Essential Guide to Semiconductors, The

Digital and Binary Concepts

We're all used to counting up to 10 on our fingers. We know that there are 10 digits, from 0 to 9, and after 9 comes 10. It's so obvious even little children understand it. But what if everyone around the world had fewer fingers, say, four on each hand? Would we all count differently?

We probably would. We'd likely have just eight digits, from 0 to 7. What comes after 7? If you guessed 8, try again. When you have only eight fingers to count on the number that comes after 7 is 10.

If that seems weird, watch how the odometer in your car works. After you drive 9 miles, the odometer rolls over to 10. And after you've driven 99 miles it rolls over to 100. Obvious, right? The odometer rolls over every time it runs out of ...