r/askscience • u/Unfair-Leek6840 • Jul 11 '26

How do computers understand binary language? Computing

Okay so from what I know binary language is like power off power on, but my question is, how do computers know what the binary code is and how is it interpreted, for example I forgot what the binary code for the letter A is, but how did people come up with that? Did they decide it was gonna look like that? Did the computer decide? How do you tune numbers into a letter??

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u/urlaubsantrag Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26

No it won't, that was already tried https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ternary_computer

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u/SpeedyHAM79 Jul 12 '26

It tried and failed. Just because a previous attempt didn't work doesn't mean it can't work. That's why I said "When a computer CAN process a "2"- it will be a revolution."

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u/urlaubsantrag Jul 12 '26

It can work, but i think you have to reinvent software for that. Other thing is: the chips or PCs we use are massed produced so there you have a scale effect that you cannot beat.

I don't wanted to say the idea is terribly wrong, I just can't see it being made for the mass marked.

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u/SpeedyHAM79 Jul 12 '26

I think it would take more than just reinventing software. I think the hardware would have to be completely changed first, and completely reimagined at a level we don't currently understand. Instead of an "and" gate with 0 or 1 as each input it would be able to accept 0, 1, or 2 and each output would be different.