Binary number through each symbol, in increasing order. Before examining binary counting, it is useful to briefly discuss the more familiar decimal counting system as a frame of reference. Decimal counting uses the ten symbols "0" through "9". Counting begins with the incremental substitution of the least significant digit (rightmost digit) which is often called the "first digit". When the available symbols for this position are exhausted, the least significant digit is reset to "0", and the next digit of higher significance (one position to the left) is incremented ("overflow"), and incremental substitution of the low-order digit resumes. This method of reset
Binary number British mathematician George Boole published a landmark paper detailing an algebraic system of logic that would become known as Boolean algebra. His logical calculus was to become instrumental in the design of digital electronic circuitry. In 1937, Claude Shannon produced his master's thesis at MIT that implemented Boolean algebra and binary arithmetic using electronic relays and switches for the first time in history. Entitled "A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits", Shannon's thesis essentially founded practical digital circuit design. In November 1937, George Stibitz, then working at Bell Labs, completed a relay-based computer he dubbed the "Model K" (for