In the past, experts developed calculating machines that worked with three digits, a ternary system, that they hoped would allow for more efficient information processing. In principle, any number can ...

(1) Data stored and processed in a computer. All data, no matter their content, are stored and processed in a binary format. See binary. (2) Numbers stored and processed as a binary representation ...

As a result, instead of data being stored via two-state binary code, it can be stored via a three-state ternary code in which the absence of an indent is a 0, a 0.3- to 1.0-nanometer-deep indent ...

That sounds pretty confusing, doesn’t it? Our decimal system seems simple by comparison, with just 10 digits from 0 to 9 to express every number imaginable. Computers need only two digits: 0 and 1.