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0.1 Binary and Number Systems

Now, Lets get down to the level of Study of Std. 4 and 5.

In small Classes we used to expand numbers, right?

Lets do that again for the number 123:

100
10
1
(102)
(101)
(100)
1
2
3
1x100 = 100
2x10 = 20
3x1 = 3

And 100+20+3 = 123

Similarly for, 256, We have,

100
10
1
(102)
(101)
(100)
2
5
6
2x100 = 200
5x10 = 50
6x1 = 6
 And 200+50+6 = 256

Now We notice, that we are simply multiplying the numbers on various places of the numbers with the corresponding powers of 10 and then adding it all up. right?

Now, Why do we multiply it with powers of 10 and not any other number?(Why not 3, 5 or 200?). This is known as Decimal Notation

The Answer is because we use 10 digits to represent the numbers i.e. (0,1,2.3,4,5,6,7,8,9).

Now, just imagine what if there were just two numbers and whatever we had to represent we had to do so with just these two numbers. What would we do?

A: We would simply multiplying the corresponding digits with the powers of 2 instead of 10.
Makes sense, right?

Then let’s do that for 1111011 :

26
25
24
23
22
21
20
64
32
16
8
4
2
1
1
1
1
1
0
1
1
64x1
32x1
16x1
8x1
4x0
2x1
1x1

And 64+32+16+8+0+2+1 = 123

You can see for yourself that there is no other representation for the number 123.

Similarly if we try it for 100000000,

28
27
26
25
24
23
22
21
20
256
128
64
32
16
8
4
2
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
256x1
128x0
64x0
32x0
16x0
8x0
4x0
2x0
1x0

And 256 + 0 +0 +0 +0 +0+0+0+0 = 256.

Thus, We see that every number in Decimal has a unique representation in Binary and like that we may store that number in a Computer in Transistors.
Exercise
Convert the following to Binary:
1) 129                2)25                 3) 250                         4)259               5) 999 
Convert the Following to Decimal Notation:
1) 1101110                        2)1001000                     3) 111110000                  4)1                    5) 000110