Electronic Digital Computers are machines which make use of switches to open and close circuits in order to follow sets of instructions. They consist of many millions of switches. Switches can be either OFF (state 0) or ON (state 1). These are the two binary states - a switch can only be ON or OFF (unless you are dealing with quantum computer which can be in many states at the same time - don't ask: quantum mechanics theory is complex, but it involves quantum superposition and entanglement. Visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_computing on the Village Interweb for a simple explanation if the current lockdown situation has sent you a little crazy).
In computing everything has to be simplified down to 1s and 0s.
Look at a typical on/off switch - it has a symbol made up of a 1 and a zero.
When you press the letter "A" on your keyboard it generates a sequence of 1s and 0s - the actual pattern is 01000001. This is a binary number which is equivalent to the number 65 in decimal numbers. The 65 is known as the ASCII Code - American Standard Code for Information Interchange, which was based on the system used by the Bell company for telegraphy.
On a Windows computer when using a word processor check the nums lock is on, then hold down the ALT key while entering 65, then release alt and the letter A will be added to the word processor screen in exactly the same way as pressing the A key.
To get the degrees symbol (temperature) use alt and 167. This allows you to add characters not available on the standard keyboard.
The eight digit Binary code can be simplified into a two digit hexadecimal code (or hex) - ie to the number base 16. (More senior members will remember counting to base 16 when they were young and using pounds and ounces, except they would say 10 or 11 ounces instead of A or B ounces). The full sixteen hexadecimal digits are 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, and F (either upper or lower cases are acceptable). This is easier for humans to use than binary, and is often used in coding programs. Our letter A (decimal 65) would be encoded as hexadecimal 41.
In hex the code for the degrees symbol (decimal 167) would be A7, and it would be 10100111 in binary.
Can you decode this message?
Binary:
01000010 01100101 00100000 01010011 01100101 01100101 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01011001 01101111 01110101
ASCII / Decimal:
66 101 32 83 101 101 105 110 103 32 89 111 117
Hexadecimal:
42 65 20 53 65 65 69 6e 67 20 59 6f 75
Decimal |
Hex |
Binary |
HTML |
Character |
Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
0 |
00 |
00000000 |
#00 |
NUL |
Null |
1 |
01 |
00000001 |
#01 |
SOH |
Start Of Header |
2 |
02 |
00000010 |
#02 |
STX |
Start Of Text |
3 |
03 |
00000011 |
#03 |
ETX |
End Of Text |
4 |
04 |
00000100 |
#04 |
EOT |
End Of Transmission |
5 |
05 |
00000101 |
#05 |
ENQ |
Enquiry |
6 |
06 |
00000110 |
#06 |
ACK |
Acknowledge |
7 |
07 |
00000111 |
#07 |
BEL |
Bell |
8 |
02 |
00001000 |
#08 |
BS |
Backspace |
9 |
09 |
00001001 |
#09 |
HT |
Horizontal Tab |
10 |
0A |
00001010 |
#10 |
LF |
Line Feed |
11 |
0B |
00001011 |
#11 |
VT |
Vertical Tab |
12 |
0C |
00001100 |
#12 |
FF |
Form Feed |
13 |
0D |
00001101 |
#13 |
CR |
Carriage Return |
14 |
0E |
00001110 |
#14 |
SO |
Shift Out |
15 |
0F |
00001111 |
#15 |
SI |
Shift In |
16 |
10 |
00010000 |
#16 |
DLE |
Data Link Escape |
17 |
11 |
00010001 |
#17 |
DC1 |
Device Control 1 |
18 |
12 |
00010010 |
#18 |
DC2 |
Device Control 2 |
19 |
13 |
00010011 |
#19 |
DC3 |
Device Control 3 |
20 |
14 |
00010100 |
#20 |
DC4 |
Device Control 4 |
21 |
15 |
00010101 |
#21 |
NAK |
Negative Acknowledge |
22 |
16 |
00010110 |
#22 |
SYN |
Syncronize |
23 |
17 |
00010111 |
#23 |
ETB |
End of Transmission Block |
24 |
18 |
00011000 |
#24 |
CAN |
Cancel |
25 |
19 |
00011001 |
#25 |
EM |
End of Medium |
26 |
1A |
00011010 |
#26 |
SUB |
Substitute |
27 |
1B |
00011011 |
#27 |
ESC |
Escape |
28 |
1C |
00011100 |
#28 |
FS |
File Separator |
29 |
1D |
00011101 |
#29 |
GS |
Group Separator |
30 |
1E |
00011110 |
#30 |
RS |
Record Separator |
31 |
1F |
00011111 |
#31 |
US |
Unit Separator |
32 |
20 |
00100000 |
#32 |
space |
Space |
33 |
21 |
00100001 |
#33 |
! |
Exclamation Mark |
34 |
22 |
00100010 |
#34 |
" |
Double Quote |
35 |
23 |
00100011 |
#35 |
# |
Number |
36 |
24 |
00100100 |
#36 |
$ |
Dollar Sign |
37 |
25 |
00100101 |
#37 |
% |
Percent |
38 |
26 |
00100110 |
#38 |
& |
Ampersand |
39 |
27 |
00100111 |
#39 |
' |
Single Quote |
40 |
28 |
00101000 |
#40 |
( |
Left Parenthesis |
41 |
29 |
00101001 |
#41 |
) |
Right Parenthesis |
42 |
2A |
00101010 |
#42 |
* |
Asterisk |
43 |
2B |
00101011 |
#43 |
+ |
Plus |
44 |
2C |
00101100 |
#44 |
, |
Comma |
45 |
2D |
00101101 |
#45 |
- |
Minus |
46 |
2E |
00101110 |
#46 |
. |
Period |
47 |
2F |
00101111 |
#47 |
/ |
Slash |
48 |
30 |
00110000 |
#48 |
0 |
Zero |
49 |
31 |
00110001 |
#49 |
1 |
One |
50 |
32 |
00110010 |
#50 |
2 |
Two |
51 |
33 |
00110011 |
#51 |
3 |
Three |
52 |
34 |
00110100 |
#52 |
4 |
Four |
53 |
35 |
00110101 |
#53 |
5 |
Five |
54 |
36 |
00110110 |
#54 |
6 |
Six |
55 |
37 |
00110111 |
#55 |
7 |
Seven |
56 |
38 |
00111000 |
#56 |
8 |
Eight |
57 |
39 |
00111001 |
#57 |
9 |
Nine |
58 |
3A |
00111010 |
#58 |
: |
Colon |
59 |
3B |
00111011 |
#59 |
; |
Semicolon |
60 |
3C |
00111100 |
#60 |
< |
Less Than |
61 |
3D |
00111101 |
#61 |
= |
Equality Sign |
62 |
3E |
00111110 |
#62 |
> |
Greater Than |
63 |
3F |
00111111 |
#63 |
? |
Question Mark |
64 |
40 |
01000000 |
#64 |
@ |
At Sign |
65 |
41 |
01000001 |
#65 |
A |
Uppercase A |
66 |
42 |
01000010 |
#66 |
B |
Uppercase B |
67 |
43 |
01000011 |
#67 |
C |
Uppercase C |
68 |
44 |
01000100 |
#68 |
D |
Uppercase D |
69 |
45 |
01000101 |
#69 |
E |
Uppercase E |
70 |
46 |
01000110 |
#70 |
F |
Uppercase F |
71 |
47 |
01000111 |
#71 |
G |
Uppercase G |
72 |
48 |
01001000 |
#72 |
H |
Uppercase H |
73 |
49 |
01001001 |
#73 |
I |
Uppercase I |
74 |
4A |
01001010 |
#74 |
J |
Uppercase J |
75 |
4B |
01001011 |
#75 |
K |
Uppercase K |
76 |
4C |
01001100 |
#76 |
L |
Uppercase L |
77 |
4D |
01001101 |
#77 |
M |
Uppercase M |
78 |
4E |
01001110 |
#78 |
N |
Uppercase N |
79 |
4F |
01001111 |
#79 |
O |
Uppercase O |
80 |
50 |
01010000 |
#80 |
P |
Uppercase P |
81 |
51 |
01010001 |
#81 |
Q |
Uppercase Q |
82 |
52 |
01010010 |
#82 |
R |
Uppercase R |
83 |
53 |
01010011 |
#83 |
S |
Uppercase S |
84 |
54 |
01010100 |
#84 |
T |
Uppercase T |
85 |
55 |
01010101 |
#85 |
U |
Uppercase U |
86 |
56 |
01010110 |
#86 |
V |
Uppercase V |
87 |
57 |
01010111 |
#87 |
W |
Uppercase W |
88 |
58 |
01011000 |
#88 |
X |
Uppercase X |
89 |
59 |
01011001 |
#89 |
Y |
Uppercase Y |
90 |
5A |
01011010 |
#90 |
Z |
Uppercase Z |
91 |
5B |
01011011 |
#91 |
[ |
Left Square Bracket |
92 |
5C |
01011100 |
#92 |
\ |
Backslash |
93 |
5D |
01011101 |
#93 |
] |
Right Square Bracket |
94 |
5E |
01011110 |
#94 |
^ |
Caret or Circumflex |
95 |
5F |
01011111 |
#95 |
_ |
Underscore |
96 |
60 |
01100000 |
#96 |
` |
Grave or Accent |
97 |
61 |
01100001 |
#97 |
a |
Lowercase a |
98 |
62 |
01100010 |
#98 |
b |
Lowercase b |
99 |
63 |
01100011 |
#99 |
c |
Lowercase c |
100 |
64 |
01100100 |
#100 |
d |
Lowercase d |
101 |
65 |
01100101 |
#101 |
e |
Lowercase e |
102 |
66 |
01100110 |
#102 |
f |
Lowercase f |
103 |
67 |
01100111 |
#103 |
g |
Lowercase g |
104 |
68 |
01101000 |
#104 |
h |
Lowercase h |
105 |
69 |
01101001 |
#105 |
i |
Lowercase i |
106 |
6A |
01101010 |
#106 |
j |
Lowercase j |
107 |
6B |
01101011 |
#107 |
k |
Lowercase k |
108 |
6C |
01101100 |
#108 |
l |
Lowercase l |
109 |
6D |
01101101 |
#109 |
m |
Lowercase m |
110 |
6E |
01101110 |
#110 |
n |
Lowercase n |
111 |
6F |
01101111 |
#111 |
o |
Lowercase o |
112 |
70 |
01110000 |
#112 |
p |
Lowercase p |
113 |
71 |
01110001 |
#113 |
q |
Lowercase q |
114 |
72 |
01110010 |
#114 |
r |
Lowercase r |
115 |
73 |
01110011 |
#115 |
s |
Lowercase s |
116 |
74 |
01110100 |
#116 |
t |
Lowercase t |
117 |
75 |
01110101 |
#117 |
u |
Lowercase u |
118 |
76 |
01110110 |
#118 |
v |
Lowercase v |
119 |
77 |
01110111 |
#119 |
w |
Lowercase w |
120 |
78 |
01111000 |
#120 |
x |
Lowercase x |
121 |
79 |
01111001 |
#121 |
y |
Lowercase y |
122 |
7A |
01111010 |
#122 |
z |
Lowercase z |
123 |
7B |
01111011 |
#123 |
{ |
Left Curly Bracket |
124 |
7C |
01111100 |
#124 |
| |
Vertical Bar |
125 |
7D |
01111101 |
#125 |
} |
Right Curly Bracket |
126 |
7E |
01111110 |
#126 |
~ |
Tilde |
127 |
7F |
01111111 |
#127 |
DEL |
Delete |
The original telegraph system was what is known as a 7-bit system since it only had seven BInary digiTs - a maximum of 128 characters or controls. Computers use 8-bits (8 BInary digiTs, or multiples - 16 Bit, 32 Bit, 64 Bit). The ASCII system was extended to give up to 256 characters, making use of all 8 bits available on early computers. Since then it has been extended further with ANSI codes (ANSI - American National Standards Institute). Some of these were other language characters, and some were graphical elements. Although not often used in crypography they could have a use communicating simple diagrams etc.
Decimal |
Hex |
Binary |
Character |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
128 |
80 |
10000000 |
Ç |
||
129 |
81 |
10000001 |
ü |
||
130 |
82 |
10000010 |
é |
||
131 |
83 |
10000011 |
â |
||
132 |
84 |
10000100 |
ä |
||
133 |
85 |
10000101 |
à |
||
134 |
86 |
10000110 |
å |
||
135 |
87 |
10000111 |
ç |
||
136 |
88 |
10001000 |
ê |
||
137 |
89 |
10001001 |
ë |
||
138 |
8A |
10001010 |
è |
||
139 |
8B |
10001011 |
ï |
||
140 |
8C |
10001100 |
î |
||
141 |
8D |
10001101 |
ì |
||
142 |
8E |
10001110 |
Ä |
||
143 |
8F |
10001111 |
Å |
||
144 |
90 |
10010000 |
É |
||
145 |
91 |
10010001 |
æ |
||
146 |
92 |
10010010 |
Æ |
||
147 |
93 |
10010011 |
ô |
||
148 |
94 |
10010100 |
ö |
||
149 |
95 |
10010101 |
ò |
||
150 |
96 |
10010110 |
û |
||
151 |
97 |
10010111 |
ù |
||
152 |
98 |
10011000 |
ÿ |
||
153 |
99 |
10011001 |
Ö |
||
154 |
9A |
10011010 |
Ü |
||
155 |
9B |
10011011 |
¢ |
||
156 |
9C |
10011100 |
£ |
||
157 |
9D |
10011101 |
¥ |
||
158 |
9E |
10011110 |
₧ |
||
159 |
9F |
10011111 |
ƒ |
||
160 |
A0 |
10100000 |
á |
||
161 |
A1 |
10100001 |
í |
||
162 |
A2 |
10100010 |
ó |
||
163 |
A3 |
10100011 |
ú |
||
164 |
A4 |
10100100 |
ñ |
||
165 |
A5 |
10100101 |
Ñ |
||
166 |
A6 |
10100110 |
ª |
||
167 |
A7 |
10100111 |
º |
||
168 |
A8 |
10101000 |
ç |
||
169 |
A9 |
10101001 |
⌐ |
||
170 |
AA |
10101010 |
¬ |
||
171 |
AB |
10101011 |
½ |
||
172 |
AC |
10101100 |
¼ |
||
173 |
AD |
10101101 |
¡ |
||
174 |
AE |
10101110 |
« |
||
175 |
AF |
10101111 |
» |
||
176 |
B0 |
10110000 |
░ |
Graphics | |
177 |
B1 |
10110001 |
▒ |
Graphics | |
178 |
B2 |
10110010 |
▓ |
Graphics | |
179 |
B3 |
10110011 |
│ |
Graphics | |
180 |
B4 |
10110100 |
┤ |
Graphics | |
181 |
B5 |
10110101 |
╡ |
Graphics | |
182 |
B6 |
10110110 |
╢ |
Graphics | |
183 |
B7 |
10110111 |
╖ |
Graphics | |
184 |
B8 |
10111000 |
╕ |
Graphics | |
185 |
B9 |
10111001 |
╣ |
Graphics | |
186 |
BA |
10111010 |
║ |
Graphics | |
187 |
BB |
10111011 |
╗ |
Graphics | |
188 |
BC |
10111100 |
╝ |
Graphics | |
189 |
BD |
10111101 |
╜ |
Graphics | |
190 |
BE |
10111110 |
╛ |
Graphics | |
191 |
BF |
10111111 |
┐ |
Graphics | |
192 |
C0 |
11000000 |
└ |
Graphics | |
193 |
C1 |
11000001 |
┴ |
Graphics | |
194 |
C2 |
11000010 |
┬ |
Graphics | |
195 |
C3 |
11000011 |
├ |
Graphics | |
196 |
C4 |
11000100 |
─ |
Graphics | |
197 |
C5 |
11000101 |
┼ |
Graphics | |
198 |
C6 |
11000110 |
╞ |
Graphics | |
199 |
C7 |
11000111 |
╟ |
Graphics | |
200 |
C8 |
11001000 |
╚ |
Graphics | |
201 |
C9 |
11001001 |
╔ |
Graphics | |
202 |
CA |
11001010 |
╩ |
Graphics | |
203 |
CB |
11001011 |
╦ |
Graphics | |
204 |
CC |
11001100 |
╠ |
Graphics | |
205 |
CD |
11001101 |
═ |
Graphics | |
206 |
CE |
11001110 |
╬ |
Graphics | |
207 |
CF |
11001111 |
╧ |
Graphics | |
208 |
D0 |
11010000 |
╨ |
Graphics | |
209 |
D1 |
11010001 |
╤ |
Graphics | |
210 |
D2 |
11010010 |
╥ |
Graphics | |
211 |
D3 |
11010011 |
╙ |
Graphics | |
212 |
D4 |
11010100 |
╘ |
Graphics | |
213 |
D5 |
11010101 |
╒ |
Graphics | |
214 |
D6 |
11010110 |
╓ |
Graphics | |
215 |
D7 |
11010111 |
╫ |
Graphics | |
216 |
D8 |
11011000 |
╪ |
Graphics | |
217 |
D9 |
11011001 |
┘ |
Graphics | |
218 |
DA |
11011010 |
┌ |
Graphics | |
219 |
DB |
11011011 |
█ |
Graphics | |
220 |
DC |
11011100 |
▄ |
Graphics | |
221 |
DD |
11011101 |
▌ |
Graphics | |
222 |
DE |
11011110 |
▐ |
Graphics | |
223 |
DF |
11011111 |
▀ |
Graphics | |
224 |
E0 |
11100000 |
α |
||
225 |
E1 |
11100001 |
ß |
||
226 |
E2 |
11100010 |
Γ |
||
227 |
E3 |
11100011 |
π |
||
228 |
E4 |
11100100 |
Σ |
||
229 |
E5 |
11100101 |
σ |
||
230 |
E6 |
11100110 |
µ |
||
231 |
E7 |
11100111 |
τ |
||
232 |
E8 |
11101000 |
Φ |
||
233 |
E9 |
11101001 |
Θ |
||
234 |
EA |
11101010 |
Ω |
||
235 |
EB |
11101011 |
δ |
||
236 |
EC |
11101100 |
∞ |
||
237 |
ED |
11101101 |
φ |
||
238 |
EE |
11101110 |
ε |
||
239 |
EF |
11101111 |
∩ |
||
240 |
F0 |
11110000 |
≡ |
||
241 |
F1 |
11110001 |
± |
||
242 |
F2 |
11110010 |
≥ |
||
243 |
F3 |
11110011 |
≤ |
||
244 |
F4 |
11110100 |
⌠ |
||
245 |
F5 |
11110101 |
⌡ |
||
246 |
F6 |
11110110 |
÷ |
||
247 |
F7 |
11110111 |
≈ |
||
248 |
F8 |
11111000 |
° |
||
249 |
F9 |
11111001 |
∙ |
||
250 |
FA |
11111010 |
· |
||
251 |
FB |
11111011 |
√ |
||
252 |
FC |
11111100 |
ⁿ |
||
253 |
FD |
11111101 |
² |
||
254 |
FE |
11111110 |
■ |
||
255 |
FF |
11111111 |