Computers calculate all numbers using binary representation, which means using only two digits: 0 and 1. If you’re not experienced with binary numbers, you might want to take a look at an online lesson on Representation of Numbers by Erik Cheever. Read at least the first two sections — “Introduction” and “Binary representation of positive integers”. (Keep reading beyond that if your brain can handle it.)

For the discussion of quantization of digital audio in this class, a key sentence in that lesson is “With n digits, 2ⁿ unique numbers (from 0 to 2ⁿ-1) can be represented. If n=8, 256 (=2⁸) numbers can be represented 0-255.” How many different numbers can be represented by 16 digits? (The answer is provided right there on that page.)