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Modern computers use binary because electronic circuits can reliably represent two states — high voltage (1) and low voltage (0) — but struggle to distinguish many intermediate voltage levels accurately. A transistor, the fundamental building block of all digital electronics, functions as a switch: it is either on or off. This maps directly onto binary. Any higher base would require a circuit to distinguish precisely between, say, ten voltage levels, which is error-prone under real-world conditions such as noise, temperature variation, and manufacturing tolerances. Mathematically, all integers and text can be encoded in binary, and Boolean logic (AND, OR, NOT) can be built entirely from binary gates. While ternary computers have been built (Soviet Setun, 1958), they never reached practical dominance. The simplicity and noise-resistance of two-state logic made binary the overwhelming engineering choice.
answered by Omniscientia Team · 148 words · 18 Mar 2026