why does computers language only have 0 &1?
In: 8
Its like saying true or false, yes or no, on or off, it keeps things simple and can accomplish a lot. Its like Braille for your computer.
Of course thats not always the case, although math logic like 1+1 == 2*1 will have a straightforward result, sometimes things aren’t that simple like what is mentioned in the other comments about electricity.
It’s easier to tell the difference between on and off than on, kind-of on, and off.
No other reason than that; we played around with trinary computers before, it just turns out that binary performs better.
Many say its because of transistors ability to switch between two states.. and that true but only party so.
In fact it isn’t true any more as many digital systems now don’t use only 1 and 0 anymore. Especially for data transmission.
One other major reason is the simple fact that Boolean logic is very simple and never ambiguous.
And all computers are built around what Boolean recognises as one of the if not the most basic form of logic than can easily be used to calculate other things.
The ALU (basically the heart of each CPU) in each computer can be expressed as a relatively short boolean term for instance .
So yes its physical limitations but also the math behind it is MUCH cleaner if you only have two states
Ultimately, even calling it 0’s and 1’s is for human readability. Computers operate on electrical voltages, and the common convention is that if a wire has 0 volts on it, that’s a “0”, but if it has 5 volts it’s a “1”. From there, it’s possible to build circuits that will add/subtract/set values/read values/etc., but from the computer’s standpoint, it’s just voltages running down wires, and through electrical components that just work through physics.
Of course, it doesn’t have to be this way, you could design a computer where it’s base 10 (and some very early computers did indeed work this way), by splitting the voltage range into various bands, and declaring that 0-1 volts is “0”, 1-2 volts is “1”, etc. but it’s a lot more complicated to build a computer that way. Plus you run the risk of what if the voltage is a sort of in-between value. Even in modern computers, the convention might be 5 volts = “1”, but in reality at one moment it might be 4.8 volts, another might be 5.1, there’s some variance there. In modern computers all of those are just interpreted as “1” by the computer. By having only two clear distinct set points, far apart, it makes it easier to tell what the voltage signals are “supposed” to be, even when they aren’t exactly at the perfect value.
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