4.5.2 Number Bases

Question 1

What is base 10?

Answer 1

Denary/Decimal

Question 2

What are some example of number base systems?

Answer 2

• Denary
• Binary
• Hexadecimal

Question 3

What is decimal?

Answer 3

• The number base that humans use to count.

* Uses the digits 0 through to 9 to represent numbers.

Question 4

What base is decimal?

Answer 4

Base 10

Question 5

How are decimal numbers denoted?

Answer 5

Subscript of 10

Question 6

How is binary represented?

Answer 6

Binary uses only two characters for each digit, either a 1 or a 0. These two values can easily be represented by computers with high or low current.

Question 7

How are binary values represented by computers?

Answer 7

With a high or low current.

Question 8

What is the subscript for binary?

Answer 8

2

Question 9

How are hexadecimal numbers represented?

Answer 9

Hexadecimal uses the digits 0 through to 9 followed by the uppercase characters A to F to represent the decimal numbers 0 to 15.

Question 10

What range of characters does hex have to represent each digit?

Answer 10

Hex can make use of 16 different characters for each digit.

Question 11

How are hex numbers denoted?

Answer 11

With a subscript 16

Question 12

What is an advantage of using hex?

Answer 12

Hex is the most compact, this means it can represent the same number as binary or decimal while using far fewer digits.

Question 13

Why is hex used as a shorthand representation for binary?

Answer 13

• It’s easy to convert between hexadecimal and binary

* The compact nature, using far fewer digits to represent the same number.