All data and info in your computer are stored as strings of bits. That means your NG toons, YouTube videos, lolcat gifs, iTunes music and Wikipedia articles are really ones and zeroes. If you're hearing this for the first time, this might sound foreign to you. Let's use a real example.
To represent data, we should assign a meaning to each binary combo. Let's make a quick four-bit triangle representation system. The first two bits determine whether the triagnle is equilateral (11), isosceles (10), scalene (01) or if the sides' relationships are unknown (00). The next two determine whether a triangle is obtuse-angled (11), right-angled (10), acute-angled (01) or the angles' relationships are unknown (00). Here are some sample data represented in our system:
- 1011 is an obtuse-angled isosceles triangle. (10 = obtuse, 11 = isosceles)
- 0110 is a right-angled scalene triangle. (01 = right-angled, 10 = scalene)
- 1111 and 1110 are impossible. (All equilateral triangles are acute-angled)
Makes sense to you?