In Numeral Systems
In the system with radix 13, for example, a string of digits such as 398 denotes the decimal number . More generally, in a system with radix b (b > 1), a string of digits denotes the decimal number .
Commonly used numeral systems include:
| Base | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | decimal system | the most used system of numbers in the world, is used in arithmetic. Its ten digits are "0–9". |
| 12 | duodecimal (dozenal) system | is often used due to divisibility by 2, 3, 4 and 6. It was traditionally used as part of quantities expressed in dozens and grosses. |
| 2 | binary numeral system | used internally by nearly all computers, is base two. The two digits are "0" and "1", expressed from switches displaying OFF and ON respectively. |
| 16 | hexadecimal system | is often used in computing. The sixteen digits are "0–9" followed by "A–F". |
| 8 | octal system | is occasionally used in computing. The eight digits are "0–7". |
| 60 | sexagesimal system | originated in ancient Sumeria and passed to the Babylonians. It is still used as the basis of our modern circular coordinate system (degrees, minutes, and seconds) and time measuring (minutes and hours). |
| 64 | Base 64 | is also widely used in computing, using as digits "A–Z", "a–z", "0–9", plus two more characters, often "+" and "/". |
| 256 | bytes | is used internally by computers, actually grouping eight binary digits together. For reading by humans, bytes are usually shown in hexadecimal. |
The octal, hexadecimal and base-64 systems are often used in computing because of their ease as shorthand for binary. For example, every hexadecimal digit has an equivalent 4 digit binary number.
Radices are usually natural numbers. However, other positional systems are possible, e.g. golden ratio base (whose radix is a non-integer algebraic number), and negative base (whose radix is negative).
Read more about this topic: Radix
Famous quotes containing the word systems:
“Our little systems have their day;
They have their day and cease to be:
They are but broken lights of thee,
And thou, O Lord, art more than they.”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)