DecimalThe decimal numeral system (also called the base-ten positional numeral system and denary ˈdiːnəri or decanary) is the standard system for denoting integer and non-integer numbers. It is the extension to non-integer numbers (decimal fractions) of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system. The way of denoting numbers in the decimal system is often referred to as decimal notation. A decimal numeral (also often just decimal or, less correctly, decimal number), refers generally to the notation of a number in the decimal numeral system.
Binary numberA binary number is a number expressed in the base-2 numeral system or binary numeral system, a method of mathematical expression which uses only two symbols: typically "0" (zero) and "1" (one). The base-2 numeral system is a positional notation with a radix of 2. Each digit is referred to as a bit, or binary digit. Because of its straightforward implementation in digital electronic circuitry using logic gates, the binary system is used by almost all modern computers and computer-based devices, as a preferred system of use, over various other human techniques of communication, because of the simplicity of the language and the noise immunity in physical implementation.
QuipuQuipu (also spelled khipu) are recording devices fashioned from strings historically used by a number of cultures in the region of Andean South America. A quipu usually consisted of cotton or camelid fiber strings. The Inca people used them for collecting data and keeping records, monitoring tax obligations, collecting census records, calendrical information, and for military organization. The cords stored numeric and other values encoded as knots, often in a base ten positional system.
AbacusThe abacus (: abaci or abacuses), also called a counting frame, is a hand-operated calculating tool of unknown origin used since ancient times in the ancient Near East, Europe, China, and Russia, millennia before the adoption of the Hindu-Arabic numeral system. The abacus consists of multiple columns of slidable beads (or similar objects). In their earliest designs, the columns of beads could be loose on a flat surface or sliding in grooves. Later the beads were made to slide on rods and built into a frame, allowing faster manipulation.
11 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of unit length is a line segment of length 1. In conventions of sign where zero is considered neither positive nor negative, 1 is the first and smallest positive integer. It is also sometimes considered the first of the infinite sequence of natural numbers, followed by 2, although by other definitions 1 is the second natural number, following 0.
VigesimalA vigesimal (vɪˈdʒɛsɪməl) or base-20 (base-score) numeral system is based on twenty (in the same way in which the decimal numeral system is based on ten). Vigesimal is derived from the Latin adjective vicesimus, meaning 'twentieth'. In a vigesimal place system, twenty individual numerals (or digit symbols) are used, ten more than in the decimal system. One modern method of finding the extra needed symbols is to write ten as the letter (the 20 means base ), to write nineteen as , and the numbers between with the corresponding letters of the alphabet.
00 (zero) is a number representing an empty quantity. As a number, 0 fulfills a central role in mathematics as the additive identity of the integers, real numbers, and other algebraic structures. In place-value notation such as decimal, 0 also serves as a numerical digit to indicate that that position's power of 10 is not multiplied by anything or added to the resulting number. This concept appears to have been difficult to discover. Common names for the number 0 in English are zero, nought, naught (nɔːt), nil.
Babylonian cuneiform numeralsAssyro-Chaldean Babylonian cuneiform numerals were written in cuneiform, using a wedge-tipped reed stylus to make a mark on a soft clay tablet which would be exposed in the sun to harden to create a permanent record. The Babylonians, who were famous for their astronomical observations, as well as their calculations (aided by their invention of the abacus), used a sexagesimal (base-60) positional numeral system inherited from either the Sumerian or the Akkadian civilizations.
1010 (ten) is the even natural number following 9 and preceding 11. It is the first double-digit number. Ten is the base of the decimal numeral system, the most common system of denoting numbers in both spoken and written language. A collection of ten items (most often ten years) is called a decade. The ordinal adjective is decimal; the distributive adjective is denary. Increasing a quantity by one order of magnitude is most widely understood to mean multiplying the quantity by ten. To reduce something by one tenth is to decimate.
Character (computing)In computer and machine-based telecommunications terminology, a character is a unit of information that roughly corresponds to a grapheme, grapheme-like unit, or symbol, such as in an alphabet or syllabary in the written form of a natural language. Examples of characters include letters, numerical digits, common punctuation marks (such as "." or "-"), and whitespace. The concept also includes control characters, which do not correspond to visible symbols but rather to instructions to format or process the text.