How Binary Works, and the Power of Abstraction

In which we learn how and why computers store everything using only zeros and ones.
Some audio from freesound.org:
Sound #67802 by SunnySideSound
Sound #178657 by jorickhoofd
Sound #162731 by synthetic-oz
00:00 Intro
00:45 Bits
02:22 Numbers
05:33 Abstraction
06:24 Text
06:45 Colors
07:36 Limits Of Computer Color
08:12 Pictures
08:33 Videos
09:51 Telling The Difference
10:44 Instructions With Assumptions
12:13 Some Other Kinds Of Data
12:45 Why Do It This Way?
14:26 Review

[@skateerdud]

This is one of the highest production quality videos I have ever seen on youtube and it answers so many questions I have had for so long, I just wish this video came out like 7 years ago haha

[@whannabi]

We're witnessing the birth of a great KZbin channel. Call me when there's a 100k people.

[@username______009]

Only 5.4K??

[@diegogodoydasilva455]

And my man still has no profile photo. Legend

[@sonicwaveinfinitymiddwelle8555]

me replying this comment 7 days later:

[@stevendavis1980]

Abstration

[@mikip3242]

When you understand this, you start to understand why computers can be made out of hydraulic pipes, domino chains, interconected brain cells, marbles rolling on slides or wooden gears. The idea of the bit is independent of the physical substrate which encodes it. You don't need to have electric circuits to build a computer (but electrcity is fast, reliable and highly controlable).

[@ToddsDiscGolf]

Reminds me of people building computers within minecraft

[@vfryhn2]

@@ToddsDiscGolf exactly you also understand why you can simulate a computer inside a computer

[@null7936]

Clock out of basic tools is essential to make funny computer and robots

[@andreman2767]

..or about what Information is

[@codatheseus5060]

​@@ToddsDiscGolfor in Conway's Game of Life

[@felipedidio4698]

The "kicking 3 out" explanation is insanely good! I've had to explain binary numbers to people in the past and I wasn't able to explain exactly why we use powers of 2 without sounding "mathematical".

[@abirhossain183]

I agree. His ways of explaining the important bits without throwing any information out is fabulous

[@OvalLibrary]

He explained how binary, or any base number works, i've tried telling my friends to think about our base 10 number system then slowly getting it down to base 2 but noone understands at all

[@CraftyF0X]

@@OvalLibrary Tell them that binary is the simplest possible number system as it contains only 2 different numbers 1 and 0, and this is very beneficial because it can be represented by just two state, which makes things very long (as the video explained) but thats fine for a computer because it also makes the transistors very simple (either around 0 or 5 volt) from transistors you can build numbers (in this binary representation and later with floating point representation) and can also build boolean logic which then can operate on said numbers.

[@OvalLibrary]

@@CraftyF0X No they know that, they just dont know how counting numbers using them work, they think theres some sort of rule or seperate way on how to count using binary, when in reality its just like every other base number system

[@CraftyF0X]

@@OvalLibrary It's simple, prove them that by demonstrating a few operation on binaries.

[@matthewzaczeniuk4892]

I can't believe that we live in a time where this content is free to watch. You sir are amazing.

[@NickWrightDataYT]

The reason why this video is SO GOOD is because it starts out at a level that just about anyone can understand, and quickly builds on top of it with logical steps, each of which anyone can understand, and suddenly you understand video encoding 101. If you understand the logic of something, "getting" the practicality of it is a non-issue because it only requires memorizing things. Which itself is easier because you get WHY you're memorizing each thing.

[@nevelis]

In other words… it builds upon layers of abstraction :)

[@NickWrightDataYT]

@@nevelis yes! But you can definitely do that while losing the entire audience's understanding haha

[@cineblazer]

If you started a Patreon, I'd join in a heartbeat. Don't even care if there's exclusive content or not, it would just make me happy to be able to help fund your continued educational-video-making. You are exceptionally good at this.

[@BlakeHopke]

Or you could just donate if he gives that option

[@thomasrgparker]

Some very good taste on the fake ending

[@Vercte]

it actually got me 😭

[@ray7175]

I can definitely see this video being used for high school CS classes. You have the great ability to break down a complex topic for non-CS people into very understandable chunks plus the video itself is pleasing to look at/listen to. Your quantum computing and raytracing videos are still my favorite though! Seriously, keep up the great work! Its rare to find someone who puts as much effort in the visuals and the explanations as you do. I strive to be as knowledgeable as you are in computer science.

[@danielbarton7151]

I have a decade of experience as a software engineer. I have to say this is an exceptional explanation! So many videos about this topic assume the viewer knows more than they do. You could show this to a total novice and they would come out with a very strong beginners understanding of how computers work at a pretty deep level. Excellent, excellent work! Please keep making more “explainers” like this! You have a gift!

[@globglob3d]

Imagine a 20k subs channel explaining this topic better than any other... Bravo

[@garethm54]

Thanks to Josh, we don't have to imagine anymore :)

[@Leuel48Fan]

@@mansart26 well given enough time, it will though, and rightfully so. He will deserve his popularity as more viewers discover the content, because it's good.

[@SoDamnMetal]

This is the kind of explanation I needed when I first started learning computer science

[@quaffie]

and even more for computer engineering

[@ryderklein6206]

wake up babe new Josh's Channel video just dropped

[@jemm113]

You just gave me half my computer architecture class in a single video! Thankfully for me I knew about all this stuff beforehand, but the way you so succinctly present it was well worth the refresher!

[@woblot725]

Ah yes, my favorite computer science topic, ABSTRACTIOIN.

[@CrescentX3]

Took me so long to pause on that lol

[@ExistentialDodo]

Great video. Really caught me off gaurd with that "1024, since I last uploaded" joke🤣 Good stuff

[@codewithlenny]

The bit about using file extensions to tell the difference between what the bits represent was mind-blowing! I've learned a ton from this video but that segment was phenomenal.

[@McWickyyyy]

I’m a software engineer. About mid level. I rarely have to deal with this type of stuff cuz of course it’s all abstracted away by the time it gets to the high level programming languages…but man I love watching your videos. It brings me back to my college days when we briefly had to learn about this stuff. There’s something truly magical about binary and hexadecimal representation of data. Thanks for all your hard work. Your videos always have great explanations as well as great animations to back them up. I hope you keep at this and keep enjoying the process of making these videos.

[@filipniklas]

I was shocked to see the view count of this video only in the mere thousands. The quality and production made me automatically assume this was in the hundreds of thousands. Dude, keep working at it, and the algorithm won't be able to ignore you forever. People deserve to see you work!

[@yhwhlungs]

Bros showing computer science basics in such a simple manner it's soothing

[@NidonocuPoisonBunny]

The joke regarding the use of 1024-bit numbers made me snicker significantly aloud. XD Great animation and a clear and accurate explaination!

[@StructuredBASIC]

saaaaaaame

[@jackied.v.carson6059]

As a compression researcher, this has to be the most outstanding explanation of what data IS and the gist of what compression is I have ever seen. Definitely going to use some of your explanations in my future non-technical presentations!

[@Simchen]

What a coincidence. Throwing files in a Hex Editor and finding out about how files are structured. Even creating my own bitmap by writing bytes in a file is what I did the last weeks. And now here is an amazing video that just summarizes all of my findings and more. What a brilliant video and charming visualization. I wonder which combination of 1's and 0's told KZbin that I was interested in that topic but knowing that Google and KZbin are part of the same company oh well... . Thank you for this masterpiece.

[@Roxor128]

Ah, this is familiar territory! When I was in high school, I loaded up the configuration file for Epic Pinball in X-Tree Gold's built-in hex editor and figured out which values to change to zeroes to get infinite balls on all tables. I learned how to write HTML by loading up saved web pages from the 1994 web in text editors and writing my own with similar structures. A few days ago, I wrote a simple C program to generate a palette and figured out the structure of the palette format by loading it up in a text editor. Did hit a little snag when directing the program's printf() outputs to a file, though. The Jasc palette format originated on Windows, so Paint Shop Pro 7 expects CR/LF newlines. Linux just uses LF newlines. Fixed that by loading up in a text editor that supported converting newlines and saving it. Not really the right way to do it, but it worked.

[@cazosky5528]

I’m so enchanted by this!! Please keep making more. I am currently in a Computer Organization and Machine Language course and so I was happy to see this video pop up and describe what I’m learning in a fun color and artistic way! The sound effects and visuals made me engrossed the entire time. I look forward to future videos :D

[@supahstarclod]

Incredibly well articulated and presented! Honestly can't believe I didn't find the channel earlier, this video does a great job with presenting information in-depth without getting lost in the details.

[@ARCISX]

Holy shit....if only every aspect of my Computer Science course was explained in such a manner!

[@Gaijin101]

From the bit flips, to the fact that blue light seem dimmer.. You nailed all the small details as well. Amazing.

[@ifraanco]

I had seen these topics explained separately, but I had never seen them explained all together. Now it makes much more sense. great video! :D

[@veto_5762]

I already knew some of this concepts but the way you explain it and the visuals just make it even more clear and easy to process, this one of the best videos regardind computer binary imo

[@pog5]

This is probably the simplest yet best way I've seen someone explain binary. Good job!

[@speakupOfficial]

A lot of these explanations were completely new to me. Really awesome to hear something explained in a totally new way and from a different perspective. Loved it!

[@TankorSmash]

Incredible editing in this. Loved the sound effects and all the effort put into making it

[@znefas]

not only is this extremely informative, it's also just sarcastic enough on certain "bits", pun intended, such as the 1024-bit numbers being used for what they're used, great video :)

[@superbro6413]

Not only is this video fun to watch and really informative, what I learned today is that binary was made standard because some dude would like his computer to work properly while he warmed his pizza in the microwave lol In fact, I think the idea that trinary and quadary circuits do exists to be the most fascinating part of this video. If I had any sway at all, could I ask you to kindly consider talking more about how they work and what they're used for? Excellent job here overall Cheers!

[@skalas6011]

Setun computer, built in 1959 for in Moscow State University, used ternary. Head of the project was Brusentsov, he has a number of books about Setun and logic, you can read that. There are also research papers in the internet about multi valued logic and ternary in particular. I suggest you search internet for that.

[@kazedcat]

Most non binary representation is use in communication but we design them to be converted immediately to binary because CMOS circuits are inherently binary. CMOS has P type and N type transistor and we use combinations of this transistor to build logic gates and more complicated circuits. Flash storage also use non binary states to record and store information.

[@leogama3422]

The Colossus, the first (special purpose) programmable digital computer, used quinary logic! It seems that it made a lot of sense at the time, when they used thousands of thermionic valves (vacuum tubes) to break the Nazi cryptography encoded in 5 bit characters.

[@larryd9577]

Oh boi.... This is so much and so well-displayed information. One could easily pause this video every 3 minutes and ponder for up to half an hour when learning this for the first time. Great content Josh! Thank you!

[@robindehood207]

You earned a subscriber. This was brilliantly done, from illustrations to explanation to humour. You didn't have to say the line, the content says enough on it's own.

[@vietanh266lmao]

This video is very underrated, it covers up the basics of how computers work but with much more details than most other videos. Keep up the good work!

[@aryhn]

yo the quality on this vid is insane. actually so good bro

[@abirhossain183]

I loved how you helped us understand both the hardware and also the software parts with such beautiful animation and awesomeness. I wish you make a detailed and interesting such more videos to help people learn about computer science and programming concepts without being scared of it

[@boticelli-lol-5606]

This is by far the most comprehensible and well produced video on the topic. It definitely should have many more views!

[@LordQueezle]

This is one of the best descriptions I've ever heard for how binary works

[@nightfox6738]

This is probably the most intuitive, beginner-friendly introduction to binary I have ever seen. Very impressive.

[@personman1411]

this channel is funny, serious, and smart all at the same time. great channel for explaining things. definitely deserves more subs.

[@SimonJ57]

That grid of suggested videos at 10:05 was so accurate, I genuinely thought the video ended then.

[@irtizahmd]

Subbed! Answers so many questions beautifully! Thanks.

[@marcuscarana9240]

1:59 The dog avatar is so cute and the mouth movement and expressions are so accurate to the words.

[@fabdlnltc]

Very well done video. Clear, and impressive!

[@crypt0pure78]

this is a whole another level in explaining ... filled so many gaps i had ... especially the "why choosing a particular way or method to design such concepts?" question , and demonstrating it ... the answer to the why question deepen the understanding and makes it comfortable to deal with the how question and this video is an over kill

[@saimaannorppa8669]

thanks for making this sequence of bits!

[@fridaybear]

i've watched a lot of videos about the inner-workings of technology over my years watching youtube but this has to be the most informative and fun one i've watched

[@xXMaDGaMeR]

Abstraction is truly an astonishing concept in CS. Your title got got hooked by mentioning it. You sir have got your self a subscriber. Amazing video!

[@haniabdulfattah221b]

This IT talk with these sound and visual effects is very satisfying

[@xorlop]

WHAT A SICK VIDEO! I hope you are here to stay and we get to see many more works of art!

[@kalpitdhakal]

just randomly watched this video and found out it was in fact the best video ever.

[@IndicaPrincess]

This is awesome. By far, the best and easiest to understand explanation of how our computers work. Thank you so much!!!

[@ChrisDaGamer]

your video on path tracing was epic, so this is very likely going to be very good as well. keep up the good work!

[@spacewalker9375]

Wow. This has to be the best explanation video on computer science i have ever seen

[@dogedogego]

Criminally underrated channel and video! Absolutely love this!

[@sagarbhadouria5915]

The depth of concepts explained in just simple animations is amazing ! This content is gold. 🔥

[@marcosoliveira8731]

Best video about this subject I´ve seen so far.

[@degox99]

I already knew about this but the way you explained made me look it from a new perspective, thank you.

[@based6457]

Another masterpiece. Interesting to think that everything about this video has been transmitted to me using the technology the video itself is about.

[@electricimpulsetoprogramming]

very well explained video, i was procrastinating to study it and this video showed up like a glove

[@Klausterfull]

Just thank you. Amazing video. As always!

[@furkankamaci6180]

Clear and to the point. Well done sir, well done.

[@reeti5958]

This video is so good and so cool. I already know all of these concepts but I still saw whole video from start to end because it is so well made. This is somewhat comforting to see too. Thanks for making this, sharing it to everyone I know. 😁

[@rupeshjha2565]

Making anyone understand about what's going on in their pc is something really complicated that this guy has simplified awesome 👍

[@soumyachakraborty2004]

Most important video in youtube for genuine computer lovers.... Mean it man... Awesome...

[@ibottosso]

Amazing work. I’m a software engineer with 20 years of experience and a major in system communication, and yours is the best summary of computer science and bits that I’ve ever seen.

[@thestoryofscience5291]

U r amazing in explaining difficult concepts in an easier way.. please break down more hard concepts for us to learn... really thank u so much!!!

[@NilsOfTheWorld]

One of the best videos on this website

[@saulivor2843]

Wow this video is absolutely incredible, keep it up Man!

[@debonairrose]

Man, only 90 seconds into the video I just had to stop it from playing to gaze in awe and wonder about the quality of the sound design. It's just completely astonishing.

[@garethm54]

Commenting to boost this video in the algorithm. Your videos are incredible, and your channel deserves to flourish.

[@DecardCain]

This is one of the best videso of explaining roots of computer science I have seen over the internet. The explaination of deep-level topics was silky-smooth and nicely kept simple. This channel is doomed to grow :)

[@andresroca9736]

Simply just one of the best videos on how computer works. Perfect mix of complex concepts and simple analogies. Liked a lot the visual backup. Programs are a huge stack of plain text files until the compiler haha. Saludos

[@Benegade]

Instant click whenever I see notifications from this channel!

[@ChrisDaGamer]

same bro

[@eternaldoorman5228]

What a great video! I'm not surprised it is so long between uploads, ...

[@kapishmalhotra716]

literally the best animation i have ever seen greatly appreciate it

[@baksoBoy]

10:05 woah why are so many of the videos in the fake page so similar to my interests and so many videos that I have seen?? absolutely amazing video as usual!! I absolutely love your video-making style!

[@guy-sl3kr]

I think we're all in the same KZbin bubble lol

[@proloycodes]

omg same!!

[@thembushes1554]

Ya, I've seen like half of them more than once.

[@rklehm]

Some have already said in the comments, but the logic of "lets remove the numbers we don't need" and seeing the power of 2 pattern emerging make me chill. FREAKING AWESOME!

[@hexraise]

Damn. I’m so happy that this video got to my recommendations. Awesome explanation and animation!

[@plasmasupremacy9321]

some really nice animation and explanations, I didn't expect this level of quality from a youtube channel with a default icon, lol

[@beginneratstuff]

This video reminded me of why I love computer science. It's a very good and easy to understand explanation presented very nicely. A perfect video imo

[@Waseek69Ahmad]

This will blow up soon. The quality of video production is just mindblowing.

[@caspermoon6052]

First video from you and I'm glad it was recommended. Great quality, great humor and great can of YT phrases. Just canned, can't wait to see more.

[@koenwerf84]

Well done! I have struggled with this question for long. Can't believe your channel isnt much much bigger. It will be!

[@mh47saiyyad21]

Extremely good. Thankyou

[@creeperthecat9120]

Omg the fact that I've actually watched those videos on the endcard just really sold it

[@vaguebrownfox]

Fascinating, I never get tired on learning the fundamentals in new ways! Thank you ❤

[@normalrachael]

love it. i’ll learn about anything you post on this channel!

[@Ali_Pxll]

This is my 3rd year in CS And No one explained the binary storing thing like you Thanks ❤️

[@wlockuz4467]

I am a software engineer so I know what goes into a computer at the lower level but every time I think about how we came up with it and the fact that in the end everything is just 1s and 0s it blows my mind. Every time.

[@Honken]

The placement, timing and idea for the bit flipping when the file extension changed? Dear sir, masterful. Masterful.

[@Psychopatz]

Yay, I struck another gems in the depth of KZbin. Great content sir!! I'm honored to be your 20k subbed ♥ Thanks our almighty algorithm!!

[@marchinelearning]

The animations and representations are on point. Great work I appreciate too much.

[@symbioticparasite6268]

This is going to my class, subbed for sure!

[@flamshiz]

this video was extremely well polished

[@Alejandro_DOOM]

Definitely one of your best videos. Keep up the outstanding work! 💯

[@yogeshgodasestar928]

Such a higher quality video i ever seen on youtube ..you answer the every questions ...love u bro ..salute❤❤❤

[@rodrigoqteixeira]

"Thank you for watching this sequence of 1s and 0s". Bro made a video be so good that even the ending is well-thought.