Sound, Radio & InformationData Encoding

Barcodes

Black and white stripes are just numbers in disguise

A cashier slides your cereal past a red light, upside down. How did a row of stripes just say exactly what it is?

You'll find out

  • How stripes spell out a number
  • What a smudged bar does to a scan
  • Why the code reads upside down too

Why it matters

Every product you buy, every package you track and every boarding pass you scan speaks a version of this code.

About 3 min6 interactive slides · 5 questionsLesson 62 · Zone 7

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