In digital electronics, the number system is used
for representing the information. The number
system has different bases and the most common
of them are the decimal, binary, octal, and
hexadecimal. Number Systems
The base or radix of the
number system is the total
number of the digit used
in the number system.
Suppose if the number
system representing the
digit from 0 – 9 then the
base of the system is the
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1. Decimal Number Systems
The number system is having digit 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6, 7, 8, 9; this number system is known as a
decimal number system because total ten digits are
involved. The base of the decimal number system
is 10.
2. Binary Number Systems
The modern computers do not process decimal
number; they work with another number system
known as a binary number system which uses only
two digits 0 and1.
The base of binary number system is 2 because it
has only two digit 0 and 1.The digital electronic
equipment are works on the binary number system
and hence the decimal number system is converted
into binary system.
• The binary number system, also called the
base-2 number system, is a method of
representing numbers that counts by using
combinations of only two numerals: zero (0)
and one (1). Computers use the binary number
system to manipulate and store all of their data
including numbers, words, videos, graphics,
and music.
• All software , music, documents, and any other
information that is processed by a computer, is
also stored using binary.
3. Octal Numbers
The base of a number system is equal to the
number of digits used, i.e., for decimal number
system the base is ten while for the binary system
the base is two. The octal system has the base of
eight as it uses eight digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
• All these digits from 0 to 7 have the same
physical meaning as by decimal symbols, the
next digit in the octal number is represented by
10, 11, 12, which are equivalent to decimal digits
8, 9, 10 respectively.
• In this way, the octal number 20 will represent
the decimal digit and subsequently, 21, 22, 23..
Octal numbers will represent the decimal number
digit 17, 18, 19… etc. and so on.
Octal became widely used in computing when
systems such as the UNIVAC 1050, PDP-8, ICL
1900 and IBM mainframes employed 6-bit, 12-bit,
24-bit or 36-bit words. Octal was an ideal
abbreviation of binary for these machines because
their word size is divisible by three (each octal digit
represents three binary digits).
4. Hexadecimal Numbers
These numbers are used extensively in
microprocessor work. The hexadecimal number
system has a base of 16, and hence it consists of the
following sixteen number of digits.
0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F.
The size of the hexadecimal is much shorter than
the binary number which makes them easy to
write and remember. Let 0000 to 000F
representing hexadecimal numbers from zero to
fifteen, then 0010, 0011, 0012, …etc. Will
represent sixteen, seventeen, eighteen… etc. till
001F which represent thirty open and so on.
The table shows the decimal, binary, octal, and
hexadecimal numbers from 0 to 15 and their
equivalent binary number.
Why is it important to understand the
concept of number systems?
Number Systems is crucial for understanding
the processing of digital system. Digital system
takes binary, octal & hexadecimal number as
input and process it and generates output.
Take a look through the key below and try to
spell something using UTF-8 binary code. Try
your name! Find the 8-bit binary code sequence
for each letter of your name, writing it down
with a small space between each set of 8 bits.
For example, if your name starts with the letter
A, your first letter would be 01000001.
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01001000 01100101 01101100
01101100 01101111 00100001
Those ones and zeros might not look
like anything to you, but in binary code
the numbers are actually saying
“Hello!”
Most Significant Bit (MSB) and Least Significant
Bit (LSB)
For a binary number, the most significant bit
(MSB) is the digit furthermost to the left of the
number and the least significant bit (LSB) is the
eps to Convert from Decimal to Binary
Convert a decimal number to binary using the remainder
method. This involves dividing the number by 2
recursively until you're left with 0, while taking note of
each remainder.
Write down the decimal number.
Divide the number by 2.
Write the result underneath.
Write the remainder on the right hand side. This
will be 0 or 1.
Divide the result of the division by 2 and again
write down the remainder.
Continue dividing and writing down remainders
until the result of the division is 0.
2910 (_________________)2
2010 (_________________)2
The most significant bit (MSB) is at the bottom of the
column of remainders and the least significant bit
teps to Convert Binary to Decimal
Converting from binary to decimal involves
multiplying the value of each digit (i.e. 1 or 0)
by the value of the placeholder in the number.
Starting with the LSB, multiply the digit by
the value of the place holder.
Continue doing this until you reach the
MSB.
Add the results together.
101101112 (_________________)10
11000112 (_________________)10
How to Convert Octal To Binary
Conversion of octal to binary number is a
two-step process. First, we need to convert
the given octal number into its equivalent
decimal number and then convert the
decimal into binary. Let us learn the
complete steps here.
Count the number of digits present in the given
number. Let the number of digits be ‘n’.
Now multiply each digit of the number with 8n-
1, when the digit is in the nth position from the
right end of the number
Add all the terms after multiplication.
The obtained value is the equivalent decimal
number
488 (_________________)2
108 (_________________)2
Convert 418 to a binary number.
Solution: Given number is 418
418 = (4 * 81) + (1 * 80)
=4*8+1*1
= 32+1
= 33(Decimal number) = 1000012
Method 2: Converting binary to octal by
grouping
Conversion from binary to octal steps are as follows:
First, recognize the number is binary or not. The
numbers with 0 and 1 with the base 2 are binary
numbers
Group all the 0 and 1 in the binary numbers in a
set of three starting from the right side(Least
Significant Bit LSB).
Add 0’s to the left (Most Significant Bit MSB) if
it doesn’t form a group of three. Make sure each
group must have three numbers.
Let us group the binary numbers into a set of three.
Therefore, Binary to octal is.
(1010111100)2
Making a group of three
= 1 010 111 100
Adding two 0 to complete the set
= 001 010 111 100
Now write the octal equivalent number
= 1 2 7 4 So (1010111100)2= (1274)8
How to Convert Hex to Binary and Binary to
Hexadecimal
Write down the hex number and represent each
hex digit by its binary equivalent number.
Use 4 digits and add insignificant leading
zeros if the binary number has less than 4
digits. E.g. Write 10 (2 decimal) as 0010 2.
Then concatenate or string all the digits
together.
3AB216 (_________________)2
1F16 (_________________)2
Discard any leading zeros at the left of the
binary number
teps to Convert Binary to Hex
Start from the least significant bit (LSB) at the
right of the binary number and divide it up into
groups of 4 digits. (4 digital bits is called a
"nibble").
Convert each group of 4 binary digits to its
equivalent hex value (see table above).
11111011101110010 2 (_________________)16
101101112 (_________________)16
ow to Convert Hex to Decimal
You can convert hex to decimal by simply
multiplying each hex numeral by the
placeholder's value as a power of 16 and
adding the result.
(F16 = 15 decimal and A16 = 10 decimal)
What is the decimal equivalent of 52FA16 ?
52FA16 = 5 x 163 + 2 x 162 + 15 x 161 + 10 x 160
= 5 x 4096 + 2 x 256 + 5 x 16 + 10 x 1
= 21,242
Decimal to Hexadecimal
Step by step solution
Step 1: Divide decimal number successively
by 16 until the quotient is 0:
39/16 = 2, remainder is 7
2/16 = 0, remainder is 2
Hexadecimal to Octal
Step by step solution
Look up each hexadecimal digit to obtain
the equivalent group of four binary digits.
Group each value and remove zeros at left
(if necessary) to get the partial result in base
2
Rearrange all the digits in sets of three
starting from the LSB (far right). Add zeros
to the left of the last digit if there aren't
enough digits to make a set of three.
There are 10 types of people in
this world.
• People who understand binary,
• and people who don't
