Key Focus Points:

1. Understand what it is meat of binary
2. Understand what it is meat of denary
3. Be able to convert a number between number systems (i.e., binary and denary)

Denary

Introduction

Denary, also known as decimal or base-10, is our standard number system that uses ten digits (0-9). The term "denary" comes from the Latin "denarius," meaning "containing ten."

Humans likely developed the base-10 system because we have ten fingers (digits) on our hands, making it natural to count in groups of ten. This is a prime example of how human biology has influenced our mathematical systems.

Key points about denary:

• Each position represents a power of 10 (ones, tens, hundreds, etc.)
• Each digit's value is multiplied by its position value (e.g., in 234, we have 2×100 + 3×10 + 4×1)
• It's the most widely used number system in everyday life

For computer scientists, understanding denary is crucial because:

• It's the number system humans are most comfortable with
• Computer programs often need to convert between denary and other number systems (binary/hexadecimal)
• User interfaces typically display numbers in denary, even though computers internally use binary

While denary is natural for humans, it's not the most efficient system for computers, which is why we also study binary and hexadecimal in computer science.

Key Points