A photo of a cake with 8 candles in a row. The first and fifth candle from the right are lit. The caption reads "Happy 17th Birthday"
this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2026
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Now that you mention it it is pretty fucky, but in every textbook thats tried to teach me counting in binary its gone from right to left.
It's not. Numbers are arranged (both binary and base 10) with the most significant digit on the left.
Whether you read the number from left to right or right to left is irrelevant and you can choose whichever one you want.
But it is completely consistent with base 10 (normal numbers).
Same here. University told me the lowest bit is on the right, the highest on the left. Never questioned it.
In kindergarten I was taught when reading the number 123, the lowest digit is on the right, and the highest on the left. Never questioned it either.