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Negative Bases
A negative base (or negative radix) may be used to construct a non-standard positional numeral system. Like other place-value systems, each position holds multiples of the appropriate power of the system's base; but that base is negative—that is to say, the base is equal to for some natural number (). Negative-base systems can accommodate all the same numbers as standard place-value systems, but both positive and negative numbers are represented without the use of a minus sign (or, in computer representation, a sign bit); this advantage is countered by an increased complexity of arithmetic operations. The need to store the information normally contained by a negative sign often results in a negative-base number being one digit longer than its positive-base equivalent. The common names for negative-base positional numeral systems are formed by prefix (linguistics), prefixing ''nega-'' to the name of the corresponding positive-base system; for example, negadecimal (base −10) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radix
In a positional numeral system, the radix or base is the number of unique digits, including the digit zero, used to represent numbers. For example, for the decimal/denary system (the most common system in use today) the radix (base number) is ten, because it uses the ten digits from 0 through 9. In any standard positional numeral system, a number is conventionally written as with ''x'' as the string of digits and ''y'' as its base, although for base ten the subscript is usually assumed (and omitted, together with the pair of parentheses), as it is the most common way to express value. For example, (the decimal system is implied in the latter) and represents the number one hundred, while (100)2 (in the binary system with base 2) represents the number four. Etymology ''Radix'' is a Latin word for "root". ''Root'' can be considered a synonym for ''base,'' in the arithmetical sense. In numeral systems In the system with radix 13, for example, a string of digits such as 398 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |