Number Systems In Computing

Author: Neil White

Simply speaking, a computer can't count to ten. In fact, it can't count to two. A computer knows only whether a bit is off or on, which is translated to the binary numbers of 0 and 1. And that's it. A computer doesn't know anything else. So how does a computer count past 1?

This is a basic topic for computing, though one that is often skipped over. However, a great deal of computer science can suddenly make a lot more sense when the reasons for binary and hexadecimal are understood. Here we'll take a look at what the main number systems are, why they are used in computing, and how to covert between them including an interactive conversion tool.