Numbering systems consist of symbols and rules for their use. The most commonly used number system in everday life is decimal, or Base 10. Base 10 uses the ten symbols 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. These symbols, can be combined to represent all possible numeric values. The decimal number system is based on powers of 10. Each column position of a value, from right to left, is multiplied by the base number 10 raised to a power, which is the exponent. The power that 10 is raised to depends on its position to the left of the decimal point. When a decimal number is read from right to left, the first or rightmost position represents 100, which equals 1. The second position represents 101, which equals 10. The third position represents 102, which equals 100. The seventh position to the left represents 106, which equals 1,000,000 and so on.. Here is an example: 2134 = (2x103) + (1x102) + (3x101) + (4x100) Computers work with and store data using electronic switches that are either ON or OFF. Computers can only understand and use data that is in this two-state or binary format. The 1's and 0's are used to represent the two possible states of an electronic component in a computer. 1 is represented by an ON state, and 0 is represented by an OFF state. They are referred to as binary digits or bits.So computer data are represented by sequences of 1's and 0's ,example: 10001110000101010110101.... Because computers are designed to work with ON/OFF switches, binary digits and binary numbers are natural to them. Humans use the decimal number system, which is relatively simple when compared to the long series of 1's and 0's used by computers. Bytes Computers are designed to use groupings of eight bits. This grouping of eight bits is referred to as a byte. In a computer, one byte represents a single addressable storage location. These storage locations represent a value or single character of data, such as an ASCII code.For example: the letter A is represented by 01000010 The binary system uses only two symbols, which are 0 and 1. The position of each digit from right to left in a binary number represents the base number 2 raised to a power or exponent. These place values are, from right to left, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, and 27, or 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, and 128 respectively. Here is an example: 10110 = (1 x 24 = 16) + (0 x 23 = 0) + (1 x 22 = 4) + (1 x 21 = 2) + (0 x 20 = 0) = 22 (16 + 0 + 4 + 2 + 0) This example shows that the binary number 10110 is equal to the decimal number 22. The next article will be dealing with converting decimal numbers to binary and vice versa.