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NUMBER SYSTEMS LEARNING OBJECTIVES Learning objectives are stated at the beginning of each chapter. These learning objectives serve as a preview of the information you are expected to learn in the chapter. The comprehensive check questions are based on the objectives. By successfully completing the NRTC, you indicate that you have met the objectives and have learned the information. The learning objectives are listed below. Upon completion of this chapter, you should be able to do the following:
INTRODUCTION How many days' leave do you have on the books? How much money do you have to last until payday? It doesn't matter what the question is - if the answer is in dollars or days or cows, it will be represented by numbers. Just try to imagine going through one day without using numbers. Some things can be easily described without using numbers, but others prove to be difficult. Look at the following examples: I am stationed on the aircraft carrier Nimitz. He owns a green Chevrolet. The use of numbers wasn't necessary in the preceding statements, but the following examples depend on the use of numbers: I have $25 to last until payday. I want to take 14 days' leave. You can see by these statements that numbers play an important part in our lives. BACKGROUND AND HISTORY Mans' earliest number or counting system was probably developed to help determine how many possessions a person had. As daily activities became more complex, numbers became more important in trade, time, distance, and all other phases of human life. As you have seen already, numbers are extremely important in your military and personal life. You realize that you need more than your fingers and toes to keep track of the numbers in your daily routine. Ever since people discovered that it was necessary to count objects, they have been looking for easier ways to count them. The abacus, developed by the Chinese, is one of the earliest known calculators. It is still in use in some parts of the world. The first adding machine was invented by Blaise Pascal (French) in 1642. Twenty years later, an Englishman, Sir Samuel Moreland, developed a more compact device that could multiply, add, and subtract. About 1672, Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (German) perfected a machine that could perform all the basic operations (add, subtract, multiply, divide), as well as extract the square root. Modern electronic digital computers still use von Liebniz's principles. MODERN USE Computers are now employed wherever repeated calculations or the processing of huge amounts of data is needed. The greatest applications are found in the military, scientific, and commercial fields. They have applications that range from mail sorting, through engineering design, to the identification and destruction of enemy targets. The advantages of digital computers include speed, accuracy, and man-power savings. Often computers are able to take over routine jobs and release personnel for more important work - work that cannot be handled by a computer. People and computers do not normally speak the same language. Methods of translating information into forms that are understandable and usable to both are necessary. Humans generally speak in words and numbers expressed in the decimal number system, while computers only understand coded electronic pulses that represent digital information. In this chapter you will learn about number systems in general and about binary, octal, and hexadecimal (which we will refer to as hex) number systems specifically. Methods for converting numbers in the binary, octal, and hex systems to equivalent numbers in the decimal system (and vice versa) will also be described. You will see that these number systems can be easily converted to the electronic signals necessary for digital equipment. TYPES OF NUMBER SYSTEMS Until now, you have probably used only one number system, the decimal system. You may also be familiar with the Roman numeral system, even though you seldom use it. THE DECIMAL NUMBER SYSTEM In this module you will be studying modern number systems. You should realize that these systems have certain things in common. These common terms will be defined using the decimal system as our base. Each term will be related to each number system as that number system is introduced. Each of the number systems you will study is built around the following components: the UNIT, NUMBER, and BASE (RADIX). Unit and Number The terms unit and number when used with the decimal system are almost self-explanatory. By definition the unit is a single object; that is, an apple, a dollar, a day. A number is a symbol representing a unit or a quantity. The figures 0, 1, 2, and 3 through 9 are the symbols used in the decimal system. These symbols are called Arabic numerals or figures. Other symbols may be used for different number systems. For example, the symbols used with the Roman numeral system are letters - V is the symbol for 5, X for 10, M for 1,000, and so forth. We will use Arabic numerals and letters in the number system discussions in this chapter. Base (Radix) The base, or radix, of a number system tells you the number of symbols used in that system. The base of any system is always expressed in decimal numbers. The base, or radix, of the decimal system is 10. This means there are 10 symbols - 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 - used in the system. A number system using three symbols - 0, 1, and 2 - would be base 3; four symbols would be base 4; and so forth. Remember to count the zero or the symbol used for zero when determining the number of symbols used in a number system. The base of a number system is indicated by a subscript (decimal number) following the value of the number. The following are examples of numerical values in different bases with the subscript to indicate the base:
You should notice the highest value symbol used in a number system is always one less than the base of the system. In base 10 the largest value symbol possible is 9; in base 5 it is 4; in base 3 it is 2. Positional Notation and Zero You must observe two principles when counting or writing quantities or numerical values. They are the POSITIONAL NOTATION and the ZERO principles. Positional notation is a system where the value of a number is defined not only by the symbol but by the symbol's position. Let's examine the decimal (base 10) value of 427.5. You know from experience that this value is four hundred twenty-seven and one-half. Now examine the position of each number:
If 427.5 is the quantity you wish to express, then each number must be in the position shown. If you exchange the positions of the 2 and the 7, then you change the value. Each position in the positional notation system represents a power of the base, or radix. A POWER is the number of times a base is multiplied by itself. The power is written above and to the right of the base and is called an EXPONENT. Examine the following base 10 line graph:
Now let's look at the value of the base 10 number 427.5 with the positional notation line graph:
You can see that the power of the base is multiplied by the number in that position to determine the value for that position. The following graph illustrates the progression of powers of 10:
All numbers to the left of the decimal point are whole numbers, and all numbers to the right of the decimal point are fractional numbers. A whole number is a symbol that represents one, or more, complete objects, such as one apple or $5. A fractional number is a symbol that represents a portion of an object, such as half of an apple (.5 apples) or a quarter of a dollar ($0.25). A mixed number represents one, or more, complete objects, and some portion of an object, such as one and a half apples (1.5 apples). When you use any base other than the decimal system, the division between whole numbers and fractional numbers is referred to as the RADIX POINT. The decimal point is actually the radix point of the decimal system, but the term radix point is normally not used with the base 10 number system. Just as important as positional notation is the use of the zero. The placement of the zero in a number can have quite an effect on the value being represented. Sometimes a position in a number does not have a value between 1 and 9. Consider how this would affect your next paycheck. If you were expecting a check for $605.47, you wouldn't want it to be $65.47. Leaving out the zero in this case means a difference of $540.00. In the number 605.47, the zero indicates that there are no tens. If you place this value on a bar graph, you will see that there are no multiples of 101.
Most Significant Digit and Least Significant Digit (MSD and LSD) Other important factors of number systems that you should recognize are the MOST SIGNIFICANT DIGIT (MSD) and the LEAST SIGNIFICANT DIGIT (LSD). The MSD in a number is the digit that has the greatest effect on that number. The LSD in a number is the digit that has the least effect on that number. Look at the following examples:
You can easily see that a change in the MSD will increase or decrease the value of the number the greatest amount. Changes in the LSD will have the smallest effect on the value. The nonzero digit of a number that is the farthest LEFT is the MSD, and the nonzero digit farthest RIGHT is the LSD, as in the following example:
In a whole number the LSD will always be the digit immediately to the left of the radix point.
Q.1 What term describes a single object? |
 
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