ECNG2013

LECTURE
Number Systems
The most common number system is the base ten or decimal number system.
Therefore to interpret a string of decimal digits, we mentally multiply each digit by
its place value.
e.g 5049 (5 10 3 ) (0 10 2 ) (4 101 ) (9 10 0 )
In computer science, base two notation or binary notation is of special importance
because the signals used in modern electronics are always one of only two states.
Therefore a base two representation of a positive integer x is a string consisting of
digits 0 or 1.
e.g 1001011 which has decimal equivalence
(1 2 0 ) (1 21 ) (1 2 3 ) (1 2 6 ) 1 2 8 64 75
Operations with binary numbers
+
0
1

0
0
1

1
1
10

Numbers are added and subtracted in the usual column by column fashion
In addition, sometimes there is a 1 to carry to the next column.
Example
Calculate (a ) 11011 2 1110 2

11011 2
(a)

1110 2
1010012

and

(b)

(b) 11011 2 1110 2

11011 2
1110 2
1101 2

In (a), the second column from the right gives 1 + 1 = 10, so there is a 1 to carry to
the third column. Similar operations have to carried out from the third to the fourth,
the fourth to the fifth and the fifth to the sixth column.

X
0
1

0
0
0

1
0
1

Long multiplication and long division in binary are straightforward using the above
multiplication table.
Example
Solve ( a ) 11010 2 10112

and

(b) 11101 2 1012

Solution

(a)

11010
1011
11010
11010
11010
100011110
101 11101

(b)

101

100
0

1001
101
100

Octal (base 8)

Answer 1012 remainder 100 2

The algorithms to convert from octal to binary and vice-versa are relatively simple
In converting from octal to binary, we simply replace each octal digit by its 3-bit
binary representation.
Note however that leading zeros must be inserted if an octal digit is less than 4

Example : Convert 514.7 8 to binary

Solution
5
101

1
4 . 7
001 100 . 111

514.7 8 101001100 .111 2

Hexadecimal
In mathematics and computer science, hexadecimal is a numeral system with a
base of 16. It uses 16 distinct symbols: the symbols 0 9 to represent the values
zero to nine, and A, B, C, D, E, F to represent values ten to fifteen.
Each hexadecimal digit represents four binary digits (bits). It is therefore relatively
compact and easy to express values in base 2 and vice-versa
Example
Convert B 2.5 D 616 to binary
Solution
B
1011

2
0010

.
.

5
D
6
0101
1101

B 2.5 D 616 10110010 .0101110101 10 2

0110