Binary as a numerical system is mainly used in computing, it’s not really something we need to use in our daily lives but there are times like, for example mainly out of personal interest we want to understand just how binary conversion works. To understand this you have to understand the concept of the switches used in computer language and just how this represents numbers in the system.
Basically there are two states for a switch in computer logic. This is on or off, or as we see it in actual binary strings one and zero. With modern computer moving into quantum computer this looks at the concept that there can be more than one state for a switch, a more complicated switch and that this will add to the states available. This of course will not be a binary system though but it will extend the concept of binary.
Binary was decided upon for use with computers because at the point of needing the way for computers to do these calculations they had only two states of a switch, on and off. It would not work on a numerical system which works in tens with each ten “unit” having a value of zero to nine in it, if you consider this in a system that works by switches and the concept of on and off at that point you did not have the concept of 10 different states for a switch. This will of course change in the future and create a way to have faster computing but for now binary is the system used. This is the way computers communicate and do calculations.
Conversion to binary is not hard when you understand the concept that each numeric until in a string “10001001” for example is an on and off state of a number multiplied by two. This starts from the right where the first value is of course one, then the second value is one multiplied by two, then two multiplied by two and so on.
This allows the system that is using binary to create any kind of number it needs based on the zero and one values that have been set in the string, for example the binary string mentioned before is 137 as the values set to 1 represent 128 + 8 + 1. So when a number is converted to binary it’s a case of finding out which of these values are used to add up to the decimal value.
This is the basic theory of converting to binary and of course it can get more complicated as the decimal number gets bigger. Conversion to binary, especially for the human brain can be quite slow if you are not used to it as we are programmed to use the decimal system but in time and with understanding it’s easy to see that the concept is not that hard and is just the case of using the correct set of on and off switches set.