Programming code tells the computer to do something, but what makes the code actually mean anything to the computer?

Question

Programming code tells the computer to do something, but what makes the code actually mean anything to the computer?

In: Engineering

Answer 1

The code gets converted into another kind of code called assembly language. The computer can send the code as inputs to electrical circuits. The circuits “understand” the code in the sense that the electrical inputs cause electricity to flow through different pathways of the circuit, causing different things to happen.

For example, it might cause one pixel to light up blue or another pixel to light up white. Or it might store stuff in memory (such as RAM) which allows it to be used to keep track of what’s going on in your programs. Or the electrical signals might cause ripples in the electromagnetic field called radio waves that send information to and from your Wi-fi router.