Binary

Review of the use of the decimal numbering system.

We learn very early how to count to ten: 1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9..10, but we're usually long past playing with colorful numbered blocks before we notice that it would take two of them to make the last number in that sequence. Why does it take two blocks to represent that number when all of the numbers before it fit on one block? When you get right to the truth, the only honest answer is that it just does because that's the way we do it.

Somewhere early in our mathematics training, after we learned to recognize each of the digits and how to count to ten, we learned about the "ones column", the "tens column", the "hundreds column", etc. so that we could work with numbers larger than 9. Using these extra columns, and with the use of a zero to indicate an empty column, we learned how to write any integer that we could calculate... or even imagine. Along the way we learned the basic rules of going to the "next number " in decimal counting:

go to the rightmost column
if it is NOT a 9, increase it to the next number and you're finished.
if it IS a 9, set it to zero AND
move one column to the left
if there is no digit there now, place a 1 in the column and you're finished
if there is a digit there go to step 2

We are so familiar with the decimal system that most people don't realize that it is somewhat arbitrary that we count based on powers of the number ten. Most theories i've heard on that subject claim that we count by tens because we have ten digits on our hands. I've also heard that the Babylonians used a counting system based on the number twelve, so i guess that means they were probably all polydactyl!

In their earliest days, before multimedia and computer games, the prmimary use for computers was to work with simple numeric data. Lists of weights and trajectories,

What is binary and why is it so important?

We learn very early how to count to ten: 1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9..10, but we're usually long past playing with colorful numbered blocks before we notice that it would take two of them to make the last number in that sequence. Somewhere early in our mathematics training, after we learned to recognize each of the digits and how to count to ten, we learned about the "ones column", the "tens column", the "hundreds column", etc. so that we could work with numbers larger than 9. Using these extra columns, and with the use of a zero to indicate an empty column, we learned how to write any integer that we could calculate... or even imagine. We learned the basic rules of decimal counting

We are so familiar with the decimal system that most people don't realize that it is somewhat arbitrary that we count based on powers of the number ten. Most theories i've heard on that subject claim that we count by tens because we have ten digits on our hands. I've heard that the Babylonians used a base twelve counting system. I guess that means they were all polydactyl!

but for whatever reason it is that we use a decimal counting system most of us also consider that the "right" way to number things. even those with minimal math skills know that the number after 9 is 10 and the number after 99 is 100.

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