Denary numbers

As a child we first encounter the numbers that we use in everyday life when we are
first
learning to count. Specifically, we learn to count using 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,
10. This gives us
ten diff erent symbols to represent each individual digit. This is therefore a
base-10 number
system. Numbers in this system are called denary numbers or, more traditionally,
decimal
numbers.
Denary numbers: which are also known as decimal numbers are written using one of
the symbols
0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 for each denary digit
KEY TERM
Bit: a digit in the binary number system written using either of the symbols 0 and
1
KEY TERM
When a number is written down the value that it represents is defined by the place
values of
the digits in the number. This can be illustrated by considering the denary number
346 which
is interpreted as shown in Table 1.01.
Place value 102
= 100 101
= 10 100
= 1
Digit 3 4 6
Product of digit and place value 300 40 6
Table 1.01 Use of place values in the representation of a denary number
You can see that starting from the right-hand end of the number (which holds the
least
significant digit), the place value increases by the power of the base number.
Binary numbers
The binary number system is base-2. Each binary digit is written with either of the
symbols 0
and 1. A binary digit is referred to as a bit.
As with a denary number, the value of a binary number is defined by place values.
For
example, see Table 1.02 for the binary number 101110.
Place value 25
= 32 24
= 16 23
= 8 22
= 4 21
= 2 20
= 1
Digit 1 0 1 1 1 0
Product of digit and
place value 32 8 4 2 0
Table 1.02 Use of place values in the representation of a binary number
By adding up the values in the bottom row you can see that the binary number 101110
has a
value which is equivalent to the denary number 46.
You must be able to use the binary number system in order to understand computer
systems. This is because inside computer systems there is no attempt made to
represent ten