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Binary Digit

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Medical, Legal, Financial, Acronyms, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.01 sec.

bit

 in full binary digit

In communication and information theory, a unit of information equivalent to the result of a choice between only two possible alternatives, such as 1 and 0 in the binary code generally used in digital computers. It is also applied to a unit of memory corresponding to the ability to store the result of a choice between two alternatives. A byte consists of a string of eight consecutive bits and makes up the basic information processing unit of a computer. Because a byte includes only an amount of information equivalent to one letter or one symbol (e.g., a comma), the processing and storage capacities of computer hardware are usually given in kilobytes (1,024 bytes), megabytes (1,048,576 bytes), and even gigabytes (about 1 billion bytes) and terabytes (1 trillion bytes).


binary digit [′bīn·ə·rē ′dij·ət]
(computer science)
bit

Binary Digit 

(in information theory), a unit used to measure entropy and the quantity of information. An entropy of 1 binary digit (1 bit) has a source with two equiprobable messages. The term is derived from the fact that the number of binary digits determines (to an accuracy of 1) the average number of characters required to record messages from a given source in the binary code. Decimal digits (decit) are also used. The conversion from one digit to another corresponds to the change in the base of logarithms when the entropy and the quantity of information are being determined (10 instead of 2). The conversion formula is 1 decit = 1/log 2 bits ≈ 3.32 bits.



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The second person was also attached to an EEG amplifier and their PC would pick up the stream of binary digits and flash an LED lamp at two different frequencies, one for zero and the other one for one.
In the article, Mercer starts with the basics, explaining the binary digits, or bits, that are at the heart of computer data, and then explains why the hexadecimal system is needed to represent 26 letters and 10 numbers.
Beyond that, the quadrillionth binary digit beckons.
 
 
 
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