Vocabulary and Examples

  • Binary Numbers: a numbering scheme in which there are only two possible values for each digit – 0 or 1 – and is the basis for all binary code used in computing systems
  • Hexadecimal: a numbering system with base 16

Binary and Hexadecimal

  • Bits: the smallest unit of data that a computer can process and store
    • ex: 1 or 0 (one number in binary is a bit)
  • Bytes: a unit of data that is eight binary digits long
    • ex: 10010110
  • Nibble: four consecutive binary digits or half of an 8-bit byte
    • ex: 0101

bit, nibble, and byte

  • Unsigned Integer: integers but have the property that they don’t have a + or - sign associated with them
    • ex: 2, 3, 6, 1000
  • Signed Integer: integers that have a + or - sign associated with them
    • ex: -2, +3,000, -1
  • Floating Point: a positive or negative whole number with a decimal point
    • ex: 3.25, 5.1, 67.627
  • Binary Data Abstractions:
  • Boolean: a logical data type that can have only the values true or false

Boolean Truth Table

  • ASCII: (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) a standard code for characters stored in a computer or to be transmitted between computers
  • Unicode: a universal character encoding standard
  • RGB: a system for representing the colors to be used on a computer display

RGB Circle

  • Data Compression: a reduction in the number of bits needed to represent data
    • Lossy: data encoding and compression technique that deliberately discards some data in the compression process
    • Lossless: restores and rebuilds file data in its original form after the file is decompressed

Data Compression Example