The binary number system was first invented in the 17th century by Gottfried Leibniz and came into widespread use when computers needed a way to represent numbers using mechanical switches.

Binary is a base 2 number system in which numbers are represented using a pattern of ones and zeros.

Early computer systems had mechanical switches that turned on to represent 1 and off to represent 0. By using switches in series, computers were able to represent numbers using binary code. Modern computers still use binary code in the form of digital ones and zeros in the CPU and RAM.

Binary numbers consist of a series of eight "bits", known as a "byte". A bit is a single one or zero that makes up the 8-bit binary number. Using ASCII codes, binary numbers can also be translated into text characters for storing information in computer memory.