Chapter 17

Numbers in Different Bases

Besides our decimal (base 10, digits = 0-9) number system, you can work with a binary system (base 2, digits = 0,1), an octal system (base 8, digits = 0-7), or a hexadecimal system (base 16, digits=0-9,A-F), among others. The same way that the decimal integer 321 means 3x102+2x101+1x100, the number 100110, in binary notation, means

1x25 + 0x24 + 0x23 + 1x22 + 1x21 + 0x20 = 32+0+0+4+2+0 = 38.

The BASE menu

The BASE menu is accessible through ‚ã(the 3 key). With system flag 117 set to CHOOSE boxes (see Chapter 1 in this guide), the following entries are available:

With system flag 117 set to SOFT menus, the BASE menu shows the following:

This figure shows that the LOGIC, BIT, and BYTE entries within the BASE menu are themselves sub-menus. These menus are discussed in detail in Chapter 19 of the calculator’s user’s guide.

Writing non-decimal numbers

Numbers in non-decimal systems, referred to as binary integers, are written preceded by the # symbol („â) in the calculator. To select the current base to be used for binary integers, choose either HEX(adecimal), DEC(imal),

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