Difference between revisions of "Positional notation"

Revision as of 05:30, 8 September 2015

Positional notation or place-value notation is a method of representing or encoding numbers.

Description

Positional notation is distinguished from other notations (such as Roman numerals) for its use of the same symbol for the different orders of magnitude (for example, the "ones place", "tens place", "hundreds place").

This greatly simplified arithmetic leading to the rapid spread of the notation across the world.

Base ten

With the use of a radix point (decimal point in base-10), the notation can be extended to include fractions and the numeric expansions of real numbers.

It developed from the Hindu–Arabic numeral system, and is the most commonly used system in the world today for most calculations.

Base sixty

The Babylonian numeral system, base-60, was the first positional system developed, and is still used today to count time and angles.

See also

• Arithmetic
• Babylonian Numerals
• Encoding
• Decimal representation
• Fraction (mathematics)
• Hindu–Arabic numeral system
• Number
• Orders of magnitude
• Radix point
• Real number
• Roman numerals

External links

• Positional notation @ Wikipedia