Decimal System
The decimal numeral system is the most commonly used and the standard system in daily life. It uses the number 10 as its base (radix). Therefore, it has 10 symbols: The numbers from 0 to 9; namely 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9.
As one of the oldest known numeral systems, the decimal numeral system has been used by many ancient civilizations. The difficulty of representing very large numbers in the decimal system was overcome by the Hindu–Arabic numeral system. The Hindu-Arabic numeral system gives positions to the digits in a number and this method works by using powers of the base 10; digits are raised to the nth power, in accordance with their position.
For instance, take the number 2345.67 in the decimal system:
- The digit 5 is in the position of ones (100, which equals 1),
- 4 is in the position of tens (101)
- 3 is in the position of hundreds (102)
- 2 is in the position of thousands (103)
- Meanwhile, the digit 6 after the decimal point is in the tenths (1/10, which is 10-1) and 7 is in the hundredths (1/100, which is 10-2) position
- Thus, the number 2345.67 can also be represented as follows: (2 * 103) + (3 * 102) + (4 * 101) + (6 * 10-1) + (7 * 10-2)
