The bit stream (series of bits) encodes information in bundles, called bytes, based upon a binary numeric system. The binary system has only two digits, zero and one. The decimal system one normally counts with, has ten digits, zero through nine. Just as in the decimal system, when the digits in a column count up to the last one (9 in decimal, 1 in binary), the digit starts at zero and the digit in the column to the left increases one. So, in decimal, the number 09 plus one makes 10. In binary, the number 01 plus one makes 10. Counting in binary, using a byte (eight columns, or bits) then proceeds: 00000000, 00000001, 00000010, 00000011, 00000100, 00000101, and so on. By relating specific binary numbers to characters, numbers, punctuation marks, and other symbols, a stream of zeroes and ones can represent words and sentences.
