binært

Binärt, or binary, is a numeral system with base 2 that uses only two digits: 0 and 1. It is a positional notation, so the value of a string of bits is determined by the sum of each digit multiplied by powers of two. For example, 1011 in binary equals 11 in decimal.

Binary is fundamental to modern computing and digital electronics because electronic components typically have two stable states, on and off. The basic unit is the bit (binary digit); eight bits form a byte, and four bits form a nibble. Data are stored, transmitted and processed as sequences of bits. Text is usually stored as bytes with encodings such as ASCII or Unicode; images and sound are stored as binary data according to specific formats.

Operations in binary include arithmetic addition and subtraction, as well as Boolean logic, including AND, OR, NOT, and XOR. These operations are the basis for digital circuits and machine instructions. In programming and data formats, binary representations are used to encode numbers, characters, and multimedia.

Historical notes: the binary system was studied by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in the 17th century and later became central to digital logic through Boole's algebra and Claude Shannon's work on information theory and circuit design.

Related concepts include endianness, which describes the order of bytes within larger data words, and various binary encodings and file formats that specify how binary data is organized for storage and communication.