This Number System Beats Binary, But Most Computers Can’t Use It Why do computers only work with the numbers 0 and 1? There are machines that process three digits with more efficiency than you ...

Unlike our everyday counting system that uses tens, binary uses just two numbers, 0 and 1. Learn more with BBC Bitesize. Suitable for KS3 students.

Why? Because it is simpler for computers to convert from binary and hexadecimal and vice versa, and it is significantly harder to do this with the commonly-used decimal number system.

If humans had eight fingers instead of ten, we might be using a somewhat different number system.

Microsoft Excel converts from binary to decimal notation using the BIN2DEC function and from decimal to binary using the DEC2BIN function.

The use of binary numbers date back to ancient Egypt, but it was 17th-century philosopher and mathematician, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who created the current binary number system used today.

That sounds pretty confusing, doesn’t it? Our decimal system seems simple by comparison, with just 10 digits from 0 to 9 to express every number imaginable. Computers need only two digits: 0 and 1.