Binary numeral system: Difference between revisions

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imported>Pat Palmer
m (Binary numeral system moved to Binary number system: In twenty years of computer science work, I have never heard it called "numeral" instead of "number", although someone in Wikipedia did it that way. So I am changing it to number because I think that is more what people expect.)
imported>Pat Palmer
(seeking consistency in naming "number system"s)
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The binary numbering system (also referred to as base-2, or [[radix]]-2), represents [[number]]s using only the [[digit]]s 0 and 1. This is in contrast with the more familiar [[decimal system]] (a.k.a. base-10, [[radix]]-10) which uses the digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.  In the decimal system, each digit position represents a [[power of]] ten. The number <math>10</math> represents the value consisting of one set of tens (<math>10^1</math>), and no sets of ones (<math>10^0</math>). Equivalently in the binary numbering system each digit position represents a power of two. The same number, <math>10</math> represents the value consisting of one set of twos (<math>2^1</math>) and no sets of ones (<math>2^0</math>) which is represented by the number 2 in the decimal system. When the numbering system used for a number is in question, one can write the radix as a subscript to the number as done in the following table.
The '''binary number system''', also referred to as base-2, or [[radix]]-2, represents [[number]]s using only the [[digit]]s 0 and 1. This is in contrast with the more familiar [[decimal number system]] (a.k.a. base-10, [[radix]]-10) which uses the digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.  In the decimal system, each digit position represents a [[power of]] ten. The number <math>10</math> represents the value consisting of one set of tens (<math>10^1</math>), and no sets of ones (<math>10^0</math>). Equivalently in the binary system each digit position represents a power of two. The same number, <math>10</math> represents the value consisting of one set of twos (<math>2^1</math>) and no sets of ones (<math>2^0</math>) which is represented by the number 2 in the decimal system. When the numbering system used for a number is in question, one can write the radix as a subscript to the number as done in the following table.


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Because the number of digits in the binary representation of a value can grow quickly, binary values are often represented in the [[hexadecimal numbering system]] (base-16), which uses the digits 0 through 9, followed by the letters A through F to represent the values ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen.
Because the number of digits in the binary representation of a value can grow quickly, binary values are often represented in the [[hexadecimal number system]] (base-16), which uses the digits 0 through 9, followed by the letters A through F to represent the values ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen.


<table cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" border="1">
<table cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" border="1">

Revision as of 09:08, 28 April 2007

The binary number system, also referred to as base-2, or radix-2, represents numbers using only the digits 0 and 1. This is in contrast with the more familiar decimal number system (a.k.a. base-10, radix-10) which uses the digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. In the decimal system, each digit position represents a power of ten. The number represents the value consisting of one set of tens (), and no sets of ones (). Equivalently in the binary system each digit position represents a power of two. The same number, represents the value consisting of one set of twos () and no sets of ones () which is represented by the number 2 in the decimal system. When the numbering system used for a number is in question, one can write the radix as a subscript to the number as done in the following table.

Decimal
Binary

Because the number of digits in the binary representation of a value can grow quickly, binary values are often represented in the hexadecimal number system (base-16), which uses the digits 0 through 9, followed by the letters A through F to represent the values ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen.

Decimal Binary Hexadecimal
0 0 0
1 1 1
2 10 2
3 11 3
4 100 4
5 101 5
6 110 6
7 111 7
8 1000 8
9 1001 9
10 1010 A
11 1011 B
12 1100 C
13 1101 D
14 1110 E
15 1111 F
16 10000 10