Number Systems I

To me numbers are just some entity that need to be represented. The way we chose to represent them is in base 10 also known as decimal number system, Where we have 10 symbols 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9 and we use them to represent any number we want to represent.

Eg: number twelve is represented as (1*10 + 2) or 12
and number hundred and twenty three is represented as (100*1 + 10*2 + 3) or 123

Similarly negative numbers can be represented.

Now the first question is "Why use 10 as the base to represent numbers?"
The answer is fairly simple, we have 10 fingers. If we had only 6 fingers we could have had a base 6 number system too.

And we would have counted as 0,1,2,3,4,5,10,11,12,13,14,15,20 and so on.


The next question is "Why do we use 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9 to represent numbers"
The answer is just because we can. Yes there is no reason to say 1 should represent one and so on. It could have been any symbol for that matter.

Lets say 'A' represents that '0' as we know it
Lets say 'B' represents that '1' as we know it
Lets say 'C' represents that '2' as we know it
Lets say 'D' represents that '3' as we know it
Lets say 'E' represents that '4' as we know it
Lets say 'F' represents that '5' as we know it
Lets say 'G' represents that '6' as we know it
Lets say 'H' represents that '7' as we know it
Lets say 'I' represents that '8' as we know it
Lets say 'J' represents that '9' as we know it

and we use a base BA (10) number system then the number 123 would be BCD.

Confusing, yes a little but not so much if you know how number systems work.


Enough to ponder about in this post. I am going to cover more topics like :

* Negative base number systems.
* How to represent any number in any base number system (except 0 base number system)

Back after a long time

I am back after quite some time.
I was very busy over the last two months.

* Been to Ladakh, Delhi (twice) and Chennai.
* Released a product.
* Got hooked onto Flickr. (http://www.flickr.com)

and many more things, which will reveal themselves over time.


I made it to the explore page of flickr with this amazing picture that I took at Pangong lake in Ladakh:



Hope you enjoy it.. I hope to find some time for blogging again.