34- Number bases

CHAPTER FIVE

NUMBER BASES

Performance objectives

Students should be able to:

1.       Define decimal numbers
2.       Define binary numbers
3.       Define hexadecimal numbers
4.       Convert decimal to binary
5.       State the various units of storage and their values
6.       Convert from one unit to another
7.       Differentiate between kilometer, kilogram and kilobyte
8.       Distinguish between kilobyte, megabyte and gigabyte

UNIT ONE: NUMBER BASES

5.1. NUMBER BASES

Numbers or figures are used in different aspects of human life. They are used by man in trading, keeping records. Similarly, numbers are used by computers to process, manage and store data. The various number system that used by msn are:
5.1.1. Decimal number
5.1.2. Binary numbers
5.1.3. Octal numbers
5.1.4. Hexadecimal

5.1.1. DECIMAL NUMBER

The decimal number system is the most commonly used number system by humans. It has ten numbers, starting with 1 and ends with 0. These numbers are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 , 9, and 0. Because decimal numbers composed of ten digits, it is in based 10. Decimal numbers are identified by the presence of subscript 10.

5.1.2. BINARY NUMBER

Binary number composed of two numbers or digits only, “1” and “0”. That means you can count only two possibilities, I or 0. Because of this binary numbers are said to be in base 2. Normally a Binary number is represented by digits with a subscript 2, like this: 10112

Binary numbers are the numbers computers use for processing, transferring data and information within them. When decimal number is represented like this: “1011" (one thousand and eleven). The leftmost bit in a binary number is called the

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