The below table visualizes how the decimal number 255 equals the binary number 11111111.
| 1 | × | 27 | = | 128 | |
| + | 1 | × | 26 | = | 64 |
| + | 1 | × | 25 | = | 32 |
| + | 1 | × | 24 | = | 16 |
| + | 1 | × | 23 | = | 8 |
| + | 1 | × | 22 | = | 4 |
| + | 1 | × | 21 | = | 2 |
| + | 1 | × | 20 | = | 1 |
| = | 255 | ||||
Binary numbers are a positional numeral system with the base (or "radix") 2. This means that binary digit (or "bit") only has two states: 1 and 0. As a result, binary numbers are well suited for electronic circuits since they can be represented as ON or OFF states, and they're therefore used as the fundamental data format in computers. A collection of 8 bits is commonly referred to as Byte. There are 28 different combinations of bits in a byte, and it can therefore be used to represent integers between 0 and 255. To represent one quadrillion (the largest number supported on integers.info), a total of 50 bits are required.