We’ve talked about bits and bytes. But what about photos, songs, and videos?
These things feel so real. You can see them, hear them, feel them.
But guess what?
They’re still just 1s and 0s.
Let’s explore how the magic happens.
🎨 How Computers See Pictures
Let’s say you draw a picture using tiny colored dots.
Each dot is called a pixel.
If your screen is like a wall, pixels are the bricks.
Each pixel has:
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A spot (row and column)
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A color
Now, how do you store a color?
You guessed it — as a number.
Red might be 11000000
Green might be 00110000
Blue might be 00001111
Each pixel is saved as:
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Position = “where it goes”
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Value = “what color it is” in bits
So a photo is just thousands or millions of these pixel codes saved one after another.
🎧 How Computers Store Sound
Sound is a wave. It goes up and down like hills.
Computers look at the sound many times every second and ask:
“Where is the wave right now? How high? How low?”
Each answer gets stored as a number — and each number becomes a group of bits.
Do that 44,000 times per second, and you have music!
🎬 What About Video?
A video = many pictures + sound.
If a movie is 1 minute long, and it plays 30 pictures every second, then…
1 minute = 60 seconds
60 seconds × 30 pictures = 1,800 pictures
Add the sound? That’s millions of bytes — all saved in order.
📦 How Does a File Work?
A file is just a folder full of bits.
Whether it’s a photo, song, game, or video — it’s just:
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1s and 0s
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Grouped in bytes
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Organized in a special order
Some files are compressed — like a zip bag that squeezes air out.
That saves space!
🧠 What You Learned
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Pictures are made of tiny dots called pixels, stored as color numbers.
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Sounds are waves turned into numbers and saved as bits.
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Videos are just many pictures + sound, played in order.
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A file is a smart pile of 0s and 1s.
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Your computer turns these bits back into what you see and hear.