3. Uses of binary: Integers

Binary numbers are what computers use to represent any kind of data whether that data is music, text, numbers or video.

Integers

Integers are whole numbers without a decimal point such as 255 or 717161617817. An integer is represented in a computer as a binary number. For example the number 1 is represented as

                              00000001

An 8 bit binary number can represent integers 0 to 255. For example 255 as a binary number is:

                              11111111

As you can see, every bit is set to 1 which means it can't be any bigger. And so 255 is the largest number an 8 bit number can represent. If a larger number needs to be handled, then more bits need to be used. For example a 16 bit binary number can handle integers up to 65,535

                         1111 1111 1111 1111

You can work out the largest number a given amount of bits can represent by using a calculator to raise 2 to the power of the number of bits. For example the largest integer a 10 bit binary number can represent is:

$$2^{10} = 1024 $$

Integers can also be negative such as -23 but your syllabus does not need you to cover negative numbers.