Even microphones that are supposed to record sound via sound waves that are inherently analogue in nature and definitely not digital. Well, that is where the analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) comes in. The entire wave pattern is converted to zeroes and ones that accurately represent all the properties of the waves, such as its frequency, amplitude, timbre etc, to give you music in simple data format such as mp3.
And for pictures, everyone of them is represented by tiny dots of solid colour, the higher the resolution, the smaller and therefore the sharper the dots appear to us. 24.6 megapixels means 24.6 million pixels to define your photos. And the colour that each pixel is supposed to assume is also defined by numbers, which are defined by zeroes and ones. If you do play around with some graphics editing, you would notice that every pixels is defined by different shades of the three primary colours to give you all the colours that we can perceive. The three primary colours are Red, Green, and Blue, each one having a spectrum of numbers from 0 to 256 to define its intensity. A 256 red is as intense a red colour you can have, and ditto for green and blue. Diferent combinations of these numbers will give you all the other colours such as brown, gold etc. So, we have in total 256^3 = 16777216 different colours, more than what our eyes can differentiate, and that is just for 16 bit graphics, 32 bit graphics will give even more.
16 bit means 16-digit-long number in the binary system of counting. We are all so used to the Decimal system, which utilises 10 digits from 0 to 9 inclusive. So after counting from 0 to 9, we go on to two digits 10, and then all the way to 99 before going to three digits 100. This is because for the slots of two digits, a decimal (base 10) system can accommodate 10^2 = 100 numbers. But for binary, we are using a very limited base 2 system using strictly only zeroes and ones. Meaning, the sequential counting goes like this; 0,1,10,11, 100,101,110,111,1000.
Going from 1 to 10 in binary, in which ten is the next immediate larger number than 1, we see that if we strictly use zeroes and ones, then after 1 is 10. As such, 10 in binary corresponds to 2 in decimal.
How to convert binary into decimal? Essentially it is the same as how we would for the decimal system. We are so familiar with decimal systems that we skip all the long processes when we register and appreciate the decimal numbers; 37 immediately is appreciated and accepted as 37 as we know it. But actually, 37 = (3 x 10^1) + (7 x 10^0) = 30 + 7. We now go back to primary school additions of ones and tens;)
Probably the reason why we started with the decimal system is that we have ten fingers for counting, also known as ten digits in Biology.
For a base ten system (decimal system), the rightmost column of numbers are carrying the multiples of 10^0 = 1. And the tens column immediately to the left of the rightmost column represent multiples of 10^1 =10. Therefore 37 =(3 x 10^1) + (7 x 10^0) = 30 + 7.
The same goes for the hundreds and thousands. Example; 4058 = (4 x 10^3), this represents the 4000, and remember that the rightmost column is always 10^0, + (0 x 10^2) + (5 x 10^1) + (8 x 10^0) = 4000 + 000 + 50 + 8 = 4058.
Similarly in Binary, since it is a base 2 system of just zeroes and ones, each increasing column of number represents a multiple of an increasing power of 2. We know from sequential counting that 10 in binary = 2 in decimal. Let us dissect 10 in binary.
10 = (1 x 2^1) + (0 x 2^0) = 2 + 0 = 2.
The zero in 10 binary represents a 0 multiple of 2^0. And the 1 in 10 represents 1 multiple of 2^1, since it is in a column to the immediate left of the rightmost column, therefore it carries multiples of 2^1, a power greater that 2^0.
As such 101 = 5 since 101 = (1 x 2^2) + (0 x 2^1) + (1 x 2^0) = 4 + 0 + 1 = 5 in decimal.
Oh well, for even bigger numbers, just use the calculators that we have in our computers.
The calculators in our computers allow us to toggle numbers between various systems of counting, in which the binary and decimal systems are just two of them, there is also the oct and hex system.
That is how the 256 shades of colours can be represented by zeroes and ones in binary.
This is getting quite lengthy.
Anyways, time for its significance to us muslims. God said he created everything in pairs, among them zeroes and ones. Zeroes represent nil existence, whereas one represents existence, or the start of existence, which suffices as the opposite of non-existence or 0. Of course 2 and 3 are also existences in the sense that they are not zeroes, but going by that logic, then so too is 1 billion. So 1 is the first to represent essence of existence, the opposite of non-existence. And in logic gate functions, zero means negative, one means positive.
And we see also how much our Islamic literature emphasise on the Oneness of God. There are at least 3 names that depict His Oneness, Wahid which means a mathematical One, Ahad meaning a One that is Unique, Samad which means a One on whom all depends. All these are heavily emphasised.
And imagine, from this reality on zeroes and ones we have the computer world.
Laa mawjuuda Illa Allah.
Nothing exists other than Allah.
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