How can a tiny barcode hold so much information?
Barcode's Secret Key
How can a tiny barcode hold so much information?
You scan a candy bar at the store — beep! — and the computer knows the price, the flavor, even how many are left in the back room. All that from a few black lines? How does a barcode squeeze so much information into such a tiny space?
Here's the trick: a barcode doesn't actually hold very much information at all. Those black and white stripes are just a number — usually twelve or thirteen digits long. Think of it like a locker number at school. The number 247 doesn't tell you what's inside the locker. It just tells you which locker to open.
