Base Pairs

Authors

Eric Iverson

Abstract

Most people are familiar with the decimal system, in which ten different symbols (0 through 9) are used to represent numbers of any size. Our numbers are written in base 10, as distinct from base 2 which uses only the symbols 0 and 1. In base 2, the base 10 numbers 1 through 7 are rewritten as 1, 10, 11, 100, 101, 110, and 111. In base 16 (the hexadecimal system), used by computer programmers, the six letters A through F are added to the ten digits, resulting in "numbers" like AB9F which is equivalent to 43935 in base 10.

Recommended Citation

Iverson, Eric (2005) "Base Pairs," Word Ways: Vol. 38 : Iss. 2 , Article 23.
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/wordways/vol38/iss2/23