What & How Computer Understand ?

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So in this blog, i am going to explain what a computer actually understands and how it works behind the scenes. You might be surprised to learn that no matter how colorful or complex things look on screen, deep inside, a computer only understands one simple language: binary (0 and 1).

Parts of a Computer

So basically, there are four main parts of a computer:

1. Monitor
2. C.P.U.
3. Keyboard
4. Mouse

What is a Computer?

A computer is an electronic device.

Why is it called an electronic device?

Because it is made of electronic components like RAM, ROM, CPU, and Motherboard etc. These electronic components are made of electronic elements such as Registers, Capacitors, Diodes, Transistors, etc.

Now, these electronic elements understand only current or no current.

So, electronic components are made of electronic elements, which means they also understand only current or no current. And since a computer is made of electronic components, it also understands only current or no current.

So we can say computer understand only presence of current and nothing else.

The 0 and 1 Convention

For our convenience, we made a convention:

State	Status	Value
Presence of Current	ON	1
Absence of Current	OFF	0

That’s why we say computers understand only 0 and 1.

Now we made a number system using 0 and 1 called Binary Number System. That’s why we call computer understand only Binary.

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Now we have concluded that a computer understands only current, but a computer consists of—

Text

Image

Video

Audio

So, how are these types of data converted into current (0 & 1)?

Text into Current (0 & 1)

Text consists of alphabets, numbers, and symbols. Now, every character has a unique numerical value called an ASCII value.

Now, how is it stored in RAM?

So basically, RAM is made of millions of capacitors.

• Capacitor charged – 1
• Capacitor uncharged – 0

Let the computer store the value 5 in RAM.

So, the binary of 5 is – 101 (One capacitor charged, one capacitor uncharged, and one capacitor charged)

Similarly, Let the computer store the value A in RAM. So, the ASCII value of A is – 65, and the binary of 65 is – 1000001.

Now, RAM is made of electronic elements, and after the electricity is gone, the capacitors of RAM become uncharged and the data is lost. That’s why RAM is called volatile memory.

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Now, how is it stored in the hard disk?

So basically, a hard disk is made of millions of magnetic materials arranged randomly (magnets).

• North pole up – 1
• North pole down – 0

Let the computer store the value 5 in HDD.

So, the binary of 5 is – 101 (One magnet with north pole up, one magnet with north pole down, and one magnet with north pole up)

Once these magnetic directions are set, they remain the same even when power is turned off. No electricity is required to keep the magnets in that state thats why it is called non-volatile memory.

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Image into Current (0 & 1)

Now, every image is made of tiny square dots called pixels. Each pixel is a combination of colors (RGB – Red, Green, Blue).

Now, color is the vibration of atoms, and the vibration of atoms means moving electrons. Moving electrons are called current, so an image is also ultimately current.

Now, how is it stored in digital form?

• Red value – (0–255)
• Green value – (0–255)
• Blue value – (0–255)

Example Pixel

• R = 255
• G = 0
• B = 0

This pixel represents pure red.

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Audio into Current (0 & 1)

Audio is a wave caused by vibrations in air.

A microphone converts these vibrations into electrical signals. These signals are then converted into numbers using sampling.

Each sample is stored in binary form — again as 0s and 1s.

So even sound, in the computer, becomes binary data.

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Video into Current (0 & 1)

A video is simply a sequence of images (frames) shown very quickly, along with sound. So we can understand conversion of video into current by image’s and audio’s conversion.

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So whatever computer consist deep down everything is current (0 & 1) and it doesnt understand anything else whatever we see on the screen everything is just a representation of current (0 & 1) thats why we call computer a dumb machine.