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ScienceIsSexy420 t1_j9v43ya wrote

TL/DR: Yes, but it's not binary

Most of the answers seem to miss a fundamental point: binary is a base 2 numal system. This means each demical place, or digit, can only hold two possible values (0 or 1). Our traditional number system is a base ten system, so each digit can hold ten values (0-9). Another common numal system for computers is the hexadecimal system, in which each digit can hold 16 values. It is useful for computers because one byte is also 16 digits (this part may be wrong, it's been a while since I've taken a computer class).

But, crucially, you can have a number system with any base you want. If you wanna add another value to binary and make it trinary, you absolutely can....but it's not binary anymore, it's trinary

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lurk876 t1_j9v9liu wrote

> Another common numal system for computers is the hexadecimal system, in which each digit can hold 16 values. It is useful for computers because one byte is also 16 digits (this part may be wrong, it's been a while since I've taken a computer class).

Hex is just a more human readable version of 4 bits (4 different 0/1 values). A byte is 8 bits which have 256 possible values

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