Because engineering is all about making choices. Making a boolean 1 bit would be space efficient. However, memory is being read at least 1 byte at a time. If yo

Because engineering is all about making choices. Making a boolean 1 bit would be space efficient. However, memory is being read at least 1 byte at a time. If you want 1 bit of that byte, that's an extra instruction. So storing a boolean in one byte is more speed efficient! (In C you can store a boolean in one bit. If, for example, you need to store a great number of booleans and memory size is more important than speed. )