How Does a Computer Count?

Before we dive deeper into how computer circuits and, in general, how hardware components are built up and work, we first need to grasp the thinking process of a computer. That is, how a computer could use the given hardware to calculate things, make decisions, and store data.

Hardware components are controlled by electric currents, which the computer will translate into numbers, so our first step will be to learn how a computer counts and works with numbers. Let's begin with a definition:

• A base (or radix) is an integer governing a counting system: each number is represented as powers of that base.

Example: Modern humans count using the base of $\bf{10}$, e.g.: $1029 = 1\cdot10^3 + 2\cdot10^1 + 9\cdot10^0$.

Fun question: Why do we use 10 as the base for counting? [Hint: something in our body relates to 10. What is it?]