What is 16-bit number?

A 16-bit number is like having 16 switches that can be either on or off, and each switch helps you count up to bigger numbers.

Imagine you have a toy box with 16 small lights, each light can be on (like the number 1) or off (like the number 0). If all the lights are off, it's like counting zero. But if one light is on and the rest are off, that’s like counting 1. If two lights are on, that’s like counting 2, just like when you count fingers!

Now think of each light as a bit (short for binary digit). So with 16 bits, you can make numbers up to 65,535, which is way bigger than the number of toys in your room.

Each bit has a special place in line, like seats at a dinner table. The first seat (from the right) might be worth just 1 toy, but the next one could be worth 2 toys, then 4, 8, and so on, doubling each time! With 16 bits, you’re actually adding up all these special seat values, that’s how big numbers are made.