The basic unit of measure in a computer system is the bit. A bit is one on/off switch. It is the smallest unit in computing, and is the foundation for for everything else. Since bits are binary (remember what that means?) they have widespread implications for how information is stored and measured. The binary numbering system and its related systems (base 8 and 16) are used to measure just about everything in a computer system. This explains why the numbers used to measure computers might seem a little odd to us. We are used to thinking in base 10, but the computer will interpret everything in base 2. A number like 255 is not very pretty in base 10, but in binary notation it is 11111111, which is a clean, lovely number. You will often run across numbers like 8, 16, 32, and 64. These numbers are powers of two, so they are nice and clean in binary notation. Just keep this in mind during our discussions today.