What information entered the process?
Labs / Computer Science
Binary Number Explorer
Click any bit to flip it on or off, and the readouts show that same value in decimal, hexadecimal, and binary at once. Each cell is labelled with its place value, so you can watch how powers of two add up. Use the −1 / +1 buttons to see carries ripple, and flip on signed mode to meet two's complement.
Labs / Computer Science / Binary Number Explorer
Binary Number Explorer
Click any bit to flip it on or off, and the readouts show that same value in decimal, hexadecimal, and binary at once. Each cell is labelled with its place value, so you can watch how powers of two add up. Use the −1 / +1 buttons to see carries ripple, and flip on signed mode to meet two's complement.
Why it matters
Why explore this?
Computer science turns clear rules into reliable processes. This model lets you step through those rules and see how each decision changes the result.
Explore
Try the model
u8 42hex 0x2Abin 0010 1010
Investigate
Questions to test
Predict first, try it in the model, then use what you observe to answer.
What to try
- Turn on only the leftmost bit. Why is it worth so much more than the rightmost one?
- Set the value to all 1s, then press +1. Where does the number go, and why?
- Flip on signed mode. What does the most-significant bit's place value become?
- In 8-bit signed mode, what is the largest positive number you can make? The most negative?
- Switch between 4-, 8-, and 16-bit widths. How does the same hex string change size?
Explain
Make sense of what happened
Trace the process one step at a time. Name the rule used at each important step, then explain why the final result follows from those rules.
Check
Before you leave
Which rule changed it?
Why did the process produce this result?
If you can answer all three using evidence from the model, you understand the main idea. If not, return to Explore and change one setting at a time.