So, you’ve been to my classroom, scanned my binary wall art QR code and landed here. Want to know what it is all about? Keep reading!

Computers store and move information in binary, that is, using only the numbers 0 and 1. The reason for this is that it is much easier to build electronics to store 2 states, instead of say 4, 10 or 12. We are so used to counting in decimal (0-9), that the binary counting seems alien to us. However, the principals are just the same, as shown in the videos below.

What you see on the wall of my classroom are two numbers written in binary:

• 01001001
• 01000011
• 01010100

These three numbers can be converted into binary to give:

• 73
• 67
• 84

However, in this context, they are not representing numbers, but rather, are representing the letters, using a character system called ASCII. In ASCII (pronounced “ass-key”), each binary numbers are used to stand in for letters using the following conversion table (click to enlarge):

So, if you can locate the three binary sequences that appear on the wall, using the table below, you can turn them into letters, and unlock the secret message. Good luck!

Image Credit: the binary chart and videos are from http://www.mrhamlin.ca/home/programming-11/binary. The chart carries no copyright information, but Google Images shows it as Creative Commons, so it is used on that basis.