What is Bit?

Bit have high importance in computer memory, networks because computer understand the things, codes even multimedia in form of bits. Not in the language we communicate How do they communicate with each other and with us? How do they represent text, images, sounds, and videos? The answer to all these questions lies in the concept of a bit, the most basic unit of information in computing and digital communications.

What is a Bit?

Bits stand for Binary Digit. Where binary means two things or two elements. Digit means a symbol which represents a number. So, bit consists two symbols in form of numbers which are 0 and 1. We call these values as Binary states, which simply represent yes or no, true or false like 0 for true and 1 for false etc. They store all the information or data in form of 0 and 1. This is binary number system which computer is using

Binary System

In real life, we use decimal system which consists 0 to 9 digits in the same way binary system uses two digits 0 and 1. All the information whether its text image or multimedia is represented in form of bits Lets take a overview how data is stored in form of bits

Represent Text in Bit

1. Using ASCII

We can represent Text in binary form using ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange). It represents binary number in form of bytes. Collection of 8 bits make a byte. ASCII provides a unique 7 digit code in binary form which represent letters. Like for example

You can get the values of text in binary format using ASCII Table

• H is represented as 72 in decimal, which is 1001000 in binary (7 bits).
• E is represented as 69 in decimal, which is 1000101 in binary (7 bits).
• L is represented as 76 in decimal, which is 1001100 in binary (7 bits).
• L is represented as 76 in decimal, which is 1001100 in binary (7 bits).
• O is represented as 79 in decimal, which is 1001111 in binary (7 bits).

So, the word “HELLO” in binary ASCII representation is: 1001000 1000101 1001100 1001100 1001111.

2. Using Unicode

Unicode means single code, it assigns a code point to every character or symbol in the world so its a hexadecimal code For example if we need to convert “HELLO” to binary using unicode

First, we need to find the code points of each letter in the word “hello”. We can use a Unicode table to do this The code points of “hello” are:

h in unicode is written represented as = U+0068

e in unicode is written represented as = U+0065

l in unicode is written represented as= U+006C

o in unicode is written represented as = U+006F

These codes can be converted to binary using hexadecimal to binary converter because computer can understand binary language

h in binary = 0000 0110 1000

e in binary = 0000 0110 0101

l in binary = 0000 0110 1100

o in binary = 0000 0110 1111

UTF-8 encoding rules

For the code point between range of U+0000 and U+007F, use one byte and prefix it with a zero.

For the code point between range of U+0080 and U+07FF, use two bytes and prefix them with 110 and 10 respectively.

For the code point between range of U+0800 and U+FFFF, use three bytes and prefix them with 1110 and 10 respectively.

For the code point between range of U+10000 and U+10FFFF, use four bytes and prefix them with 11110 and 10 respectively.

Since all the code points of “hello” are between U+0000 and U+007F, we only need one byte for each letter, and we prefix them with a zero. The UTF-8 encoded bytes of “hello” are:

h = 0110 1000

e = 0110 0101

l = 0110 1100

o = 0110 1111

Finally, we concatenate these bytes to form the UTF-8 encoded word “hello”. The result is:

hello = 01101000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111

Represent Image in Bit

The basic idea of representing image is to divide the image in form of small pixels assign a binary code to all different pixels on basis of its color and brightness. The more the size of image means that more number of colors, shades are used in image.

For example if we have to represent an image in BMP format. which is stored as a matrix of pixels, each pixel having a fixed number of bits to represent its color. Like, a 2×2 pixel image with black and white colors can be encoded as 00000000 00000000 11111111 11111111 in BMP. Here each pixel represents (8bit) so we have got this code of 8 digit. The first pair of bytes represents the top-left pixel, which is black (00000000 00000000), the second pair represents the top-right pixel, which is white (11111111 11111111), and so on

Properties of Bit

• Bit is smallest unit of digital data which contains only two values 0 and 1
• Every bit is independent in itself and carries different data, changing 1 bit will not affect the data of other bit
• In boolean algebra, where there are only two values (true and false, true is represented by 1 and 0 is for false)
• If two bits are complement of each other like one is 0 and other is 1 then they form dual relationship.
• The higher number of bit used, the more data can be stored so accuracy of data is determined by how many bits are used like 8 Bit 16 bit or 32 bit

Uses of Bit

• Data Representation: Bit are the most basic and fundamental data of storing and representing data in different formats. It can encode text, images, video and audio file
• Computer Processing: As we know computers operate in Binary language and can understand language of 0 and 1 . CPUs (Central Processing Units) manipulate bits to process data, run software, and perform various tasks.
• Error Detection and Correction: In data communication, bits are used for error detection and correction. Techniques like checksums and error-correcting codes help ensure data integrity.
• Character Encoding: For representation of text bits use encoding techniques such as ACII, Unicode etc. This is important for communication between machine and human.
• Security: Bits are very important for encryption and security protocols. Cryptographic algorithms, such as XOR (exclusive OR), use bitwise operations to manipulate data at the bit level.
• Compression: Bits are essential for compression of data. Compression means reducing the size of data by removing unimportant information from bits. It is done is multimedia
• Control Systems: In digital control systems, bits are used to encode commands and states, allowing for the automation of various processes and systems.

FAQs on What is Bit?

Q.1: What is difference between similar terms bit and byte?

Answer:

Bit is the smallest unit of data, it can have 2 values 0 or 1. While byte is made up of 8 bits so it can store more data ex. byte can store value between 0 to 255

Q.2: Write commonly used units which are formed by combining bits?

Answer:

There are many units like kilobit, megabit, gigabit, terabit etc.

Q.3: What are Qubits?

Answer:

Here we can understand from name ‘Qu’ represent quantum and bits. So the bits used in quantum computing are known as qubits. Qubits can store superposition of both binary digits 0 and 1 at the same time.

Q.4: What does the term ‘bit rate ‘ stands for?

Answer:

Its the rate at which bits are transmitted or processed per unit of time, typically measured in bits per second (bps).

Q.5: Why bits are important in computing?

Answer:

Bits are useful for storing and processing different types of data whether its text, image or digital information.