Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

Digital Literacy Computer Basics Computer Basics Data

Posted by Deonten Wardlow
Deonten Wardlow
4,383 Points

What binary number represents off?

binary numbers representing on and off

2 Answers

Greg Kaleka
Greg Kaleka
39,021 Points
Greg Kaleka
Greg Kaleka
39,021 Points

I'll give you a hint: it's either 0 or 1 :).

I'd recommend watching the lesson video again. If you didn't pick up on that, you probably missed some other stuff too.

Cheers,

-Greg

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,236 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,236 Points

In actual practice it's actually not completely just one way or the other. We know there's only two binary values, 0 and 1, but a system designer can designate either to represent on, and the other for off. I have worked with systems that do it both ways.

However, the generally accepted convention is to use 0 to represent off, and 1 to represent on. It's a good bet that this convention will be observed in nearly any kind of general-purpose training to avoid confusion. The same would hold for the convention of using 0 to represent false and 1 to represent true.

Still, I have to agree with Greg in that what's most important for the purpose of answering the course challenge is what the instructor tells you represents off in the video.