Decimal System
Math Amy Petersen
decimal system
The decimal system is based on the ten numbers: 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9.
It is based on the number ten, because that you have ten fingers, and that would be the easiest way to count, by your fingers.
The Indian culture developed the decimal system. The Mohenjo Daro culture of the Indus river Valley was using a form of the decimal numbering some 500 years ago.
On a computer, it works with only two variables, 0 and 1. All the numbers in the decimal system can be translated into 0's and 1's of the binary system. By having only one digit or box, there are two possibilities. This binary system is a base-2 numbering system that only uses the two numbers 0 and 1. In binary, the first digit corresponds to a decimal value of 0 or 1, while the second digit corresponds to a decimal value of 0 or 2. The multiples of the decimal system are 1,10,100,1000 etc. The multiples of the binary counting system are 1,2,4,8,16,32,64,128etc.
We use a base ten number system, also called the decimal system. This means that all the places in our numbers are extended by 10x. The most likley explination for why we use base ten is because that we have ten fingers, and that makes it easy to count on our fingers.
The main principle of the system is that 10 is considered as a new unit from which point counting starts again. Ten tens is again a new unit. The multiples of 10 are counted by the same systems as 1 to 9. This in fact is a pretty old way of counting.