11 0 1 110 1101 0
Computers and other digital
devices use a
numerical system called
0 01 0010 1
Binary Notation.
1
00 0 0 00 00 0
0 in 1 0 01 0
1 1 1 1 1 11 1
11
1 0 0 01 1001 00 0
1
1 1 11 11 1 1 1 Some electronic equipment keeps track of information
by using two possible States of voltage‐
on or off, 1 or 0.
When we first learn to
count from one to ten
we use a numerical
system called
Decimal Notation.
There are theories that say we count
this means that we are counting in in multiples of ten because human beings have
a system that is based on ten symbols. ten fingers and ten toes.
OCTAL: HEXADECIMAL:
Base 8 Base 16
eight symbols: sixteen Symbols:
01234567 0123456789ABCDEF
Decimal notation is also called Base 10 There are other ways of counting that are commonly
because there are ten symbols. used in computing‐ Octal & Hexadecimal.
4 To understand how binary
578 notation works, lets
75 go back to
decimal notation.
5,139,018 975
5,237,019
12 214
87
301
133 67,452,991
Binary notation (also called Base 2) uses two
symbols ‐ 0 and 1 ‐ to represent all possible numbers
1,345
Base 10 is the system we are most familiar with.
number
of 100s
number
of 10s
number
of 1s
214
2 x 100 = 200 1 x 10 = 10
200 + 10 + 4 = 214
4 x 1 = 4
01
If we look at a Decimal number, we can see that
there is a place for the number of ones, the Notice that all of the “places” are multiples of ten‐
number of tens and the number of hundreds. which is the number of symbols we are using.
number number
number number
of 16s of 4s
of 64s of 1s
number number
number number
of 128s of 2s
of 32s of 8s
Remember, Base two only has two
symbols to represent all the
possible numbers. Here is the same number (214 in Decimal notation) represented in binary notation.
11010110
128 x 1 = 128 64 x 1 = 64 32 x 0 = 0 16 x 1 = 16 8 x 0 = 0
128 + 64 + 0 + 16 + 0 + 4 + 2 + 0 = 214
4 x 1 = 4 2 x 1 = 2 0 x 1 = 0
In this case, all of the “places” are multiples of two ‐ the number of symbols we use in Binary notation.
23
2 3
(2 to the third power)
equals
exponent
2 X 2 x 2
base
2 to the power of 3
the base is the number that will be multiplied by
Another way to think about the “places” in a
itself, the exponent is the number of times
numerical system is to use exponents. it will be multiplied.
11010110
27 x 1
128
26 x 1
64
25 x 0
0
24 x 1
16
23 x 0
0
22 x 1
4
21 x 1
2
20 x 0
0
214 102 x 2
200
101 x 1
10
100 x 4
4
here is the number in both binary and decimal, with the exponent value at each of the “places”.
?
?
so how do we
convert from
one base
? ?? 36/2 = 18
18/2 = 9
remainder
0
0
to another?
9/2 = 4 1
?
? ? ? 4/2 = 2
2/2 = 1
1/2 = 0
0
0
1
?? ? ? 1 0 0
one method to convert from Decimal to binary is to keep dividing the decimal
1 0 0
first lets convert from number by 2, keeping track of the remainder of the Division. the remainder
decimal to binary‐ we’ll (always a 0 or 1 ) moves from right to left, to the least
start with 36. significant place available.
there’s a 1 at the “place” for 32
and a 1 at the “place” for 4.
(subtract 25 from 36) 36‐32 = 4 1
powers of 2: 25 24 23 22 21 20 (can’t subtract 24 from 4) 4‐16 0
(can’t subtract 23 from 4) 4‐8 0
decimal value: 32 16 8 4 2 1 (subtract 22 from 4) 4‐4 = 0 1
(can’t subtract 2 from 0)
1
0‐2 0
binary value
of decimal 36: 1 0 0 1 0 0 (can’t subtract 20 from 0) 0‐1 0
let’s look at the relationships of the
powers of 2 to the decimal values & see another method continually subtracts the next
how they relate to our number. largest power of 2 from our decimal number. ,
powers of 2: 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
decimal value: 128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1
binary value: 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0
decimal value
in number: 128 + 0 + 32 + 0 + 0 + 4 + 2 + 0 = 166
now Let’s convert the binary number 10100110 to base 10. we use a grid to determine
the decimal values at each of the binary “places”.
to test your knowledge, click anywhere on YOu will need to have Version 9 of the
the panel below and follow the Flash Player installed.
instructions. [Link]
Now try converting from binary to decimal. make sure you’ve got
follow the instructions to Flash Player v. 9 installed!
get started. [Link]