In order to understand how a computer is able to manipulate data and perform computations, you must rst understand how data is represented by a computer. At the lowest level, the indivisible unit of data in a computer is a bit. A bit represents a single binary value, which may be either 1 or 0. In di erent contexts, a bit value of 1 and 0 may also be referred to as \true" and \false", \yes" and \no", \high" and \low", \set" and \not set", or \on" and \o ". The decision to use binary values, rather than something larger (such as decimal.
