📚 Resources 01 — Go Deeper on How Computers Work
All free. None required — the lesson stands on its own. Pick whatever matches your curiosity and your preferred format (video, interactive, or full course).
🎬 Videos
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Crash Course Computer Science — a famous, fast, funny YouTube series (about 40 short episodes) hosted by Carrie Anne Philbin; episodes 1–6 cover exactly this module: electricity, binary, logic, CPU, and memory. Search “Crash Course Computer Science” on YouTube (channel: CrashCourse). Best for: visual learners who enjoy energetic narration and don’t mind pausing occasionally.
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Code.org — “How Computers Work” — a short official video series (on code.org and on Code.org’s YouTube channel) featuring Bill Gates and engineers explaining binary, circuits, and hardware in genuinely plain language. Best for: absolute beginners who want the gentlest possible version, about 30 minutes total.
🖱️ Interactive
- Khan Academy — “Computers and the Internet” — a free interactive course at khanacademy.org (look under Computing) with short videos, articles, and self-check questions on bits, binary, and hardware. Best for: people who like to read at their own pace and answer questions as they go, with progress tracking.
🎓 A full (free) university course
- CS50: Introduction to Computer Science — Harvard’s legendary free introductory course at cs50.harvard.edu/x; the first lecture covers binary and how computers represent information, with real lecture-hall demonstrations. Best for: the ambitious reader — it goes far beyond this module and does get technical, so treat it as a “someday” goal rather than homework for this week.
⚠️ Watch out: these resources vary hugely in depth. If one makes you feel lost, that is the resource’s fault, not yours — close it and try a gentler one. Code.org is the softest landing; CS50 is the deep end.