Computer Science Basics: The Magic behind the Bits and Bytes

Explore how decimal numbers map to binary using bits, bytes, and nibble, and learn two methods to convert between decimal and binary (eight-bit ranges) with practical examples.

Explore msb and lsb as the most and least significant bits in binary numbers, and compare big endian notation with little endian internally used by computers.

Explore how decimal addition carries into binary addition, showing how to add binary digits with carries, understand modulo two results and integer overflow with fixed bit widths.

Explore boolean logic by mapping true and false to 1 and 0, and combining a and b with and, or, xor, and negation, using truth tables.

Explore how logical gates such as not, and, or, xor form the building blocks of CPU logic, including gate symbols, negation circles, and NAND/NOR representations.

Explore how half adders use xor for the sum and carry out, then extend to full adders with carry in, deriving sum and carry formulas for binary addition.

Master bit masks using bitwise operations to check and set bits with shifts and the end operator. A four-bit bitmap encodes alive, moving, attacking, and taking damage for compact memory.

Examine why floating point numbers cannot be stored exactly and compare them using is close with absolute or relative tolerance to avoid equality checks.

Explore how the ascii table represents letters and symbols with one byte per character. Understand 128 values, capital versus lowercase, and why utf-8 encoding follows in the next video.

Explore number sets from natural numbers to complex numbers, highlighting unsigned integers, regular integers, floating point values, rational numbers, real numbers, and the subset relationships with all and exists quantifiers.

Explore the sum and product notations, including sigma and pi, with upper and lower limits and an index variable, and notice how constants factor and sums split.

Learn how graphs use vertices and edges, distinguishing undirected from directed graphs. See a weighted shortest-path example with A, B, and C to illustrate minimizing travel distance.

Install WSL2 on Windows by running a PowerShell command and installing Ubuntu from the Microsoft Store. Learn how this Linux subsystem enables a fast, hardware-tied Linux terminal on Windows.

Explore how VS Code turns a text editor into an IDE with extensions, IntelliSense, and installing compilers and debuggers on your own; enjoy cross-platform, open-source, free use and built-in Git.

Explore how functions in Python encapsulate game logic, call different inputs, and manage outputs, with notes on the standard library and main function.