Number bases

• What are number bases

  The number of digits available within a particular number system
• What is the number base of the decimal number system


  • 10 digits available (0-9)
• What is the number base of the binary number system


  • 2 digits available (0&1)
• What is the number base of the hexadecimal number system


  • 16 characters available (0-9) & (A-F)
• How to convert from binary to decimal (3)

  • Write out a binary number
  • Write the decimal value of each unit position
  • The sum of the decimal values above each '1' in the binary number is the decimal value
• How to convert from decimal to binary (3)


  • Write out the power of 2 sequence
  • Starting with the highest binary value that goes into the decimal number, write a 1 wherever this applies
  • repeat until the whole decimal number has been converted to binary
• How to convert from decimal to hexadecimal(3)


  • Write out the binary equivalent of the decimal number
  • Split the binary number into sets of 4
  • Finf the corresponding hex value of each decimal value of each set of 4
• How to convert from hexadecimal to decimal (2)


  • Take each value, find its equivalent value and convert it to binary in groups of four bits
  • Put the groups of bits together in the right order before converting it to decimal
• What is the advantage of using hexadecimal as a shorthand for binary(3)

  • easier to understand for humans
  • quicker to program than binary
  • less likely to write an incorrect value
• what is 10^3


  1 Kilobyte (KB)
• what is 10^6


  1 megabyte (MB)
• what is 10^9


  1 gigabyte (GB)
• what is 10^12


  1 terabyte (TB)