The ordinary decimal system uses ten distinct single-symbols: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. But many other ways of writing numbers are available. Here are a few. All these cases show how the quantity sixteen would be written.

Sixteenbase = How Sixteen is WrittenIn case we have this many distinct symbols

1016

1115

1214

1313

1412

1511

1610

179

208

227

246

315

1004

1213

100002

When the number of distinct symbols is just two (2), they are usually written 0 and 1. This is the binary means of tracking quantity.
10/30/03 Version http://www.cs.ucla.edu/~klinger/repre.html
©2003 Allen Klinger