COMPUTER NUMBER SYSTEM Binary - Or base 2. There are only two numbers in binary, 0 and 1.

Because computers use a sequence of switches that can be on or off (also called a bit), base 2 works very well for them. Math in base 2 is pathetically simple, but incredibly time consuming . Octal - Or base 8. Uses the numbers 0 to 7. There are eight bits in a byte, which is used very often in the computer field. (A bit is great, but it's too small to hold any useful data, thus the byte is used.) Math in octal is more complicated than decimal. Decimal - Or base 10. Uses the numbers 0-9. I'm sure you're familiar with this system. Computers only display numbers in decimal, they actually do all their work in binary. Math is quite simple with this number system, although some may argue. Hexadecimal - Or base 16. Uses the numbers 0-F. Yes, I said F. Because there are 16 values per placeholder, five new numbers had to be created. Those numbers are A, B, C, D, E, and F (Original isn't it?)."A" has a value of 10, "B" is 11, and so on. We use this system in the computer field as a means of viewinglots of data much faster. As you can see in the chart below, the hexadecimal column is the smallest becauseit can handle more data per place holder. Very useful when looking at raw computer data. Math inhexadecimal is not very simple compared to decimal. You may wonder why I only counted up to 256 (don't forget 0). Well 256 is a very common number in thecomputer field because it is a natural multiple of 2 (the base computers use). 256 is 2 to the 8th power (8 bitsin a byte). Got it? The term computer numbering formats refers to the schemes implemented in digital computer andcalculator hardware and software to represent numbers. A common mistake made by non-specialistcomputer users is a certain misplaced faith in the infallibility of numerical computations. For example, if one multiplies: one might perhaps expect to get a result of exactly 1, which is thecorrect answer when applying an exact rational number or algebraic model. In practice, however,

the resulton a digital computer or calculator may prove to be something such as 0.9999999999999999 (as one mightfind when doing the calculation on paper) or, in certain cases, perhaps 0.99999999923475. The latter result seems to indicate a bug, but it is actually an unavoidable consequence of the use of a binaryfloating-point approximation. Decimal floatingpoint, computer algebra systems, and certain bignumsystems would give either the answer of 1 or 0.9999999999999999...

Decimal 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

12 13 14 15 16

111 1000 1001 1010 1011 1100

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B

Binary 0 1 10 11 100 101 110

1101 1110 1111 10000

Hexadecimal

C D

E 10

1 2 3 4

7 10 11 12 13 14

15 16 17 20

Octal 0

5 6

http://www.codercaste.com/2009/11/20/numeral-systems-conversion-binary-octal-decimal-andhexadecimal/