GCSE Computer Science (CCEA)

Topic Summaries

COMPUTER SYSTEMS: Number systems

Overview of number systems

  • There are three number systems you need to know: 
    • Denary (decimal) is the standard base-10 system used by humans, consisting of digits 0–9.
    • Binary is the base-2 system used by computers, consisting only of 0s and 1s; each binary digit (bit) represents an on/off or true/false state in hardware.
    • Hexadecimal is the base-16 system, using digits 0–9 and letters A–F to represent values 10–15; it provides a more compact and humanreadable form of binary.
  • Binary is used directly by computers, while hexadecimal simplifies the representation of binary values for programmers (e.g. colour codes, memory addresses). 
  • Conversions between denary, binary, and hexadecimal are common in programming, networking, and low-level computing tasks.

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