Use of binary and hexadecimal we use binary to represent whether a transistor is awful on a computer processor. The processor is the brain of the computer containing millions of transistors, and it's where all of the calculations take place. Turning transistors on or off allows the computer to carry out complex calculations. For a computer to carry out instructions, no matter what language they're originally written in, they must be translated into binary before they can be carried out by the computer. This binary is the base code for computer systems and is also known as machine code. So the question that you may be wondering is why if binary is the only language that a computer understands we bother using hexadecimal, binary numbers can end up being very long.

And as you will soon be able to see they can be translated into a much abbreviated hexadecimal number. As much easier for humans to read we find hexadecimal in lots of different places. However, the most common area where you will come across them will be in colors, where we use two hex digits for red, too for green, and two for blue. You may also come across them in assembly language as you complete your GCSE course.