Today’s lesson has pretty much nothing to do with internet marketing or building a business. But there is something to learn from it.

Since this Friday (November 11, 2011) is the last “Binary Day” of our lifetimes, I thought I’d share with you how to convert binary numbers into “regular” numbers.

But, wait, what’s a binary day?

I call binary days any day where the date (MM/DD/YY) is only 1s and 0s. So this year, we’ve had quite a few…

• 01.01.11
• 01.10.11
• 01.11.11
• 10.01.11
• 10.10.11
• 10.11.11
• 11.01.11
• 11.10.11
• 11.11.11

And since we won’t have a 2-digit year of 00, 01, 10, or 11 until the next century (January 1, 2100), it’s pretty cool to pay attention to.

Binary numbers work off a simple premise – it’s there or it isn’t (yes/no, on/off, etc.). The most common place binary is used is in computers (and as a graphical element in the Matrix movies!).

Let’s start the lesson with this fact: the numbers 111011 and 111111 have decimal values of 57 and 61, respectively.

Now let’s go back to elementary math when you learned about the decimal system (numbers – not Dewey!).

How do you know how much 189,204 is?

What you may have forgotten is each number, from right to left, is actually how many 1s, 10s, 100s, 1000s, 10000s, and 100,000s there are in the number. And these are really just 10 to a certain “power” or exponent – 10 to the 0 (1), 10 to the first (10), 10 to the second/squared (100), etc. By the way, this is why the system is called “decimal” or Base 10.

So, in the decimal number 189,204, you have (reading from right to left)…

• 4 1s
• 0 10s
• 2 100s
• 9 1,000s
• 8 10,000s, and
• 1 100,000s.

We read it as “One hundred eighty-nine thousand, two hundred and four.”

That’s base 10. Other number systems include octal (base 8), hexadecimal (16 – this is how you make “hex” codes for color on the internet), and of course binary (base 2).

Now, since binary uses powers of 2, the digits correspond to 2 to the 0 (1), 2 to the first (2), 2 to the second (4), 2 to the third (8), 2 to the fourth (16), 2 to the fifth (32), etc.

Remember, it’s only one of two options – you either have it or you don’t. I like to think of it as a numerical version of Go Fish. Also, remember to read/add it up from right to left.

So with Thursday’s date of 11/10/11 (or 111011), we have

• 1 1s
• 1 2s
• 0 4s
• 1 8s
• 1 16s
• 1 32s

Adding up 1+2+8+16+32 gives you the decimal equivalent of 59.

Friday’s date of 11/11/11 (or 111111) is only different by having a 1 in the 4s digit, so it’s equal to 63 in decimal.

So now you know :)

What’s the point?

Well, besides making for a good, nerdy party trick, I wanted to show you that I like to break down seemingly foreign concepts into simple “oh – that’s how that works” lessons, and have fun in the process.

The same goes for marketing your business online.

You may look at making online videos, affiliate marketing, list building, or Wordpress with a dumbfounded stare like you look at binary. I love to make it simple for you to understand, and more importantly, profit from these essential internet marketing strategies.

Check out my empowering coaching and training courses at the IM Success Library. There are multiple options available to you, but the decision is really a Yes or No choice.

To your empowered success!

Bob Jenkins

p.s. Ready to have your brain stretch just a little more? Color codes in HTML use a 3-pairing combination of hexadecimal numbers that correspond to how much red (R), green (G), and blue (B) there is. The values are in Base 16, where digits can be from 0-9 plus A – F (since using 10-15 would be too confusing). So the color #CC0000 has a red value of CC (12 1s and 12 16s), a green value of 00 (0 1s and 0 16s), and a blue value of 00 (0 1s and 0 16s).