A bit is a digit of the binary system.
Binary digit is an English expression that means "binary digit" and that gives rise to the term bit , its acronym in our language. The concept is used in computing to name a unit of measurement of information that is equivalent to the selection between two alternatives that have the same degree of probability.
The bit, in other words, is a digit that is part of the binary system . Unlike the decimal system, which uses ten digits ( 0 , 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 and 9 ), the binary system uses only two ( 0 and 1 ). A bit, therefore, can represent one of these two values ( 0 or 1 ).
The bit in computing
For computing , the bit is the smallest unit of information . Allows you to represent two different values (such as open/close or true/false) and assign these values to the on ( 1 ) or off ( 0 ) state.
If one bit allows us to represent two values ( 0 and 1 ), two bits allow us to encode four combinations: 0 0 , 0 1 , 1 0 and 1 1 . Each of these four combinations, in turn, allows four different values to be represented. Words, images and numbers can be represented by sequences of bits.
This means that when, referring to two digital devices, they are represented with two values, such as 0 0, it means that both are off, while if the representation is 0 1, what is shown is that the first one is off and the second ignition.
The third possible representation is 1 1 with which we would perfectly understand that the two aforementioned devices are on. And finally there is the 1 0 which means that the first one, the one on the left, is on and the second one is off.
A unit of measurement of information is called a bit.
Octets and bytes
The set of eight bits that form a unit of information is called an octet . A byte , on the other hand, is a string of neighboring bits whose size is linked to the information code in which it is defined. It is common, however, for a byte to be made up of 8 bits .
Other multiples of the bit
There are also other multiples of these values that we have highlighted. Specifically, there is also the kilobyte which is equivalent to 1,024 bytes, the megabyte which is equal to 1024 kilobytes or the gigabyte which corresponds to 1024 megabytes. The growing sequence continues with terabytes, petabytes, exabytes, zetabytes, yotabytes and xentabytes, among other multiples.
Let's take the example of images. The notion of bit allows us to refer to the classification of colors. A 1-bit image therefore only has two values (black or white); An 8-bit image can display up to 256 colors thanks to combinations of zeros and ones.
A police unit
In addition to everything highlighted, we have to say that the term in question is used in the Spanish police field to refer to a very important division of the police force. Specifically, when talking about BIT, we are mentioning the Technological Research Brigade, which is responsible for protecting citizens in general and more specifically all those who browse the Internet.
Scams, spam or hoax are some of the issues that this police section is in charge of, which we can say works for everyone's safety.