Statistics

Computers operate on binary numbers. Almost all computation is done by manipulating 0's and 1's. Thus, in order for computers to use the numbers we give them, they must convert them from base 10 (what we use normally) into binary (base 2). It is sometimes useful to determine how many bits a number will take to represent, so that we can save memory. For example, if a number is smaller than 256, we can represent it with 8 bits.

A binary number's value is determined as follows: For each '1' in the binary number add 2^i (2 to the power of i), where i is the number of digits to the right of the '1'. For example, 10100 binary, is equivalent to 20 in decimal. The first 1 has 4 digits to the right, so it is equivalent to 2^4 = 16. The other 1 has two digits to the right of it, so it is 2^2 = 4. 16 + 4 = 20. Another example is 1111, whose base 10 equivalent is 2^3 + 2^2 + 2^1 + 2^0 = 8 + 4 + 2 + 1 = 15.

Your task is to write a method that, given an int, will determine the minimum number of bits that must be used to represent this number in binary.