Use the area below to generate a random 8 bit binary number to practice converting binary numbers to decimal.
For our example let's convert the binary number 01001011 to it's decimal equivalent.
The first step is to draw out a table and fill it in with the column headings for binary. Remember, the column headings in binary start at 1 on the right and double as you move left like below.
Then it's just a matter of adding up the column headings of the columns that have a 1 in them.
| 128 | 64 | 32 | 16 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
64 + 8 + 2 + 1 = 75
| 128 | 64 | 32 | 16 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Click the button to generate a binary number to convert