1

2
 WHAT I NEED TO KNOW

This module will help you understand computers more. It aims to aid students to be
introduced to basic programming fundamental principles. It covers the following 5
lessons, and we are in now in the 5th lesson:

1. Converting between decimal and binary numbers

2. Converting between decimal and octal numbers
3. Converting between decimal and hexadecimal numbers
4. Converting between binary, octal, and hexadecimal numbers
5. Trace conversion of digital data from any form to binary and vice versa

3
LESSON 5

Converting Between Binary,

Octal, and Hexadecimal
Numbers

WHAT I KNOW

Choose the letter of the best answer.

1. It is the backbone of how computers work. What is it?

a. Decimal c. Bits
b. Binary d. Bytes
2. What do you call the representation of vibrations of sounds?
a. Viber c. Music
b. Waveform d. Binary
3. Around how many pixels are found in a 2-minute-long video?
a. 1 billion pixels c. 6 billion pixels
b. 30 pixels per image d. 3 billion pixels
4. What do you call the tiny dots that you see in an image?
a. Pixels c. PNG
b. Waveforms d. Pics
5. What is the binary equivalent of a space?
a. 01000000 c. 00100001
b. 00101000 d. 00100000
6. What do you call the character encoding standard for electronic communication?
a. NASA c. ASCII
b. ANSI d. ASA
7. What does ASCII stand for?
a. America’s Standard Codes for c. America’s Standard Codes for
International Interchange International Information
b. American Standard Codes for d. American Standard Codes for
Information Interchange Interchange of Information
8. Who created ASCII?
a. NASA c. ASCII
b. ANSI d. ASA
9. When was it created?

4
 a. 1936 c. 1963
b. 1953 d. 1935
10. What was the new name of ASA?
a. NASA c. ASCII
b. ANSI d. ASA
11. When did it change its name?
a. 1963 c. 1967
b. 1965 d. 1969
12. What do you call a group of 4 bits?
a. Quadruple c. Nibble
b. Byte d. Bits
13. How many bits were there in the first release of ASCII codes?
a. 5 c. 7
b. 6 d. 8
14. How many bits were there in the second release of ASCII codes?
a. 5 c. 7
b. 6 d. 8
15. What is code page 437?
a. The American coded pages by c. The IBM-developed extension of 8-bit
ANSI. ASCII codes.
b. The previous version of ASCII. d. An error codes page.

5
 WHAT’S NEW

GROUP ‘EM UP!

INSTRUCTIONS

Search for any computer-related vocabulary words in the box below!

Q B A K A T Y L Z R

W Y S L S R U K X U

E T D Z C E I J C E

R E F X I W O H V I

T I G N I B B L E W

Y O H C B I P G B O

U P J V N T A F N Q

A S A R M Q S D M P

WHAT IS IT

UNITS IN COMPUTING

In the past, we have already learned about binary numbers and bits. Why don’t
we have a quick recap.

The binary number system consists of 0s and 1s that we call bits. 1 is a bit, 0
is a bit. A combination of 8 bits is what we call a byte.

For example:
10101010 is a byte 11100011 is a byte
10001000 is a byte 11001100 is a byte

6
 A bit is the most basic unit in computing. Followed by a byte. In the table below
are the other units used in computing:

DATA MEASUREMENT SIZE

Bit Single Binary Digit (1 or 0)

Nibble 4 bits
Byte 8 bits
Kilobyte (KB) 1,024 Bytes
Megabyte (MB) 1,024 Kiloytes
Gigabyte (GB) 1,024 Megabytes
Terabyte (TB) 1,024 Gigabytes
Petabyte (PB) 1,024 Terabytes
Exabyte (EB) 1,024 Petabytes

TEXT IN BINARY

In encoding text to binary and binary to text is quite a process. Computers use
what is known as ASCII characters for users and programmers to be able to input and
output text.

ASCII or American Standard Codes for Information Interchange is a character

encoding standard for electronic communication. It was created in 1963 by the ASA
or American Standards Association which change its name in 1969 to ANSI or
American National Standards Association as it has been known since.

ASCII is also the most common format for text files in computers and on the
internet. In an ASCII file, each alphabetic, numeric, or special character is represented
with a 7-bit binary number.

In the following tables are the list of codes and their corresponding characters
and symbols:

7
8
 In 1981, IBM developed an extension of 8-bit ASCII code, called “code page
437”.

Also 128 characters were added , with new symbols, signs, graphics and Latin
letters, all punctuation signs and characters needed to write texts in other languages,
such as Spanish.

In this way was added the ASCII characters ranging from 128 to 255.

IMAGES AND VIDEOS IN BINARY

Have you ever wondered how we are able to see images and videos on our
screens? Binary numbers are still the ones responsible for these.

For example, consider an image with lots of colors such as this one:

9
 Pixels:

If we zoom this in, we would be seeing tiny dots called pixels. And each pixel
has a color. Each of the color can be represented with numbers.

A typical image has 1 million pixels. A typical video shows 30 images per
second. When we consider this, a minute-long video would be showing around 3 billion
pixels per minute. Thus, the big size of the file.

SOUND IN BINARY

Binary is also responsible for the music we hear from our phones and
computers! How? Read on.

Sounds are vibrations in the air. Vibrations can be represented graphically as

a waveform.

Any point in this waveform can be represented by a number. And in this way,
sound can be broken down into a series of numbers.

When we use computers, we don’t deal directly with ones and zeros, but we
will be dealing with texts, images, videos and sounds.

So if we want to understand how computers work on the inside, it all comes

down to these simple ones and zeros – binary numbers – and the electrical signals
and circuits behind them. They are the backbone of how all computers input, store,
process, and output information.

10
 WHAT’S MORE

ACTIVITY 1

A. Using the ASCII table of characters given in the lesson, get the decimal
equivalent for each character below:

B. This time, using the answers you got in A, give the binary equivalent for each
decimal number. Make sure to use 8 bits in each answer. Example if your
answer is 1001, then add 0000 to the left to make it 8 bits: 00001001

Character: P a n d e m i c

ASCII Code:

Binary:

ACTIVITY 1 ASSESSMENET

Refer to the answer key. What is your score?

Interpretation of scores:
16 Excellent
14 Very good
12 Good
10 Fair
8 and below Poor

ACTIVITY 2

A. Complete the table below.

DATA MEASUREMENT SIZE

1. 2 nibbles _____ bits
2. 8 bytes _____ bits
3. 3 kilobytes _____ bytes
4. 40 megabytes _____ bytes

11
 5. 1 gigabyte _____ megabytes
6. 5 terabytes _____ gigabytes
7. 10 petabytes _____ terabytes
8. 7 exabytes _____ petabytes

ACTIVITY 2 ASSESSMENET

Refer to the answer key. What is your score?

Interpretation of scores:
8 Excellent
7 Very good
6 Good
5 Fair
4 and below Poor

ACTIVITY 3

A. Write your FAMILY NAME in binary form. Use capital letters only.

Example:

BABATUAN – 01000010 01000001 01000010 01000001 01010100 01010101

01000001 01001110

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED

Tell me in 1 or 2 paragraphs what you have learned!

___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________.

12
 ASSESSMENT

Choose the letter of the best answer.

1. It is the backbone of how computers work. What is it?

a. Decimal c. Bits
b. Binary d. Bytes
2. What do you call the representation of vibrations of sounds?
a. Viber c. Music
b. Waveform d. Binary
3. Around how many pixels are found in a 2-minute-long video?
a. 1 billion pixels c. 6 billion pixels
b. 30 pixels per image d. 3 billion pixels
4. What do you call the tiny dots that you see in an image?
a. Pixels c. PNG
b. Waveforms d. Pics
5. What is the binary equivalent of a space?
a. 01000000 c. 00100001
b. 00101000 d. 00100000
6. What do you call the character encoding standard for electronic communication?
a. NASA c. ASCII
b. ANSI d. ASA
7. What does ASCII stand for?
a. America’s Standard Codes for c. America’s Standard Codes for
International Interchange International Information
b. American Standard Codes for d. American Standard Codes for
Information Interchange Interchange of Information
8. Who created ASCII?
a. NASA c. ASCII
b. ANSI d. ASA
9. When was it created?
a. 1936 c. 1963
b. 1953 d. 1935
10. What was the new name of ASA?
a. NASA c. ASCII
b. ANSI d. ASA
11. When did it change its name?
a. 1963 c. 1967
b. 1965 d. 1969
12. What do you call a group of 4 bits?
a. Fibble c. Nibble
b. Byte d. Bits
13. How many bits were there in the first release of ASCII codes?
a. 5 c. 7
b. 6 d. 8
14. How many bits were there in the second release of ASCII codes?
a. 5 c. 7
b. 6 d. 8

13
 15. What is code page 437?
a. The American coded pages by c. The IBM-developed extension of 8-bit
ANSI. ASCII codes.
b. The previous version of ASCII. d. An error codes page.

REFERENCES

Arjun Thakur 2018, Tutorials Point, accessed June 2, 2020,

<https://www.tutorialspoint.com/how-to-convert-decimal-to-binary>

Electronics Tutorials 2020, Aspen Core, accessed June 1, 2020,

<https://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/binary/bin_2.html>

Merriam Webster 2020, Merriam-Webster Incorporated, June 11, 2020,

<https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prefix>

Online Etymology Dictionary, 2020, Douglas Harper, June 27, 2020

<https://www.etymonline.com/word/hexadecimal#:~:text=hexadecimal%20(adj
.),From%201970%20as%20a%20noun.>

Tech Terms 2013, Sharpened Productions, June 11, 2020,

<https://techterms.com/definition/bit>

Tutorials Point 2020, Tutorials Point Simply Easy Learning, June 27, 2020
<https://www.tutorialspoint.com/hexadecimal-number-system>

Rapid Tables 2020, Rapid Tables, September 9, 2020

14