GCSE Link: 3.02 (Binary and Hexadecimal)
There are many different types of numbers. For example, the natural numbers, represented as ℕ
in mathematical notation, refer to the set of numbers which can be used for counting (0, 1, 2, 3, ...).
The integers (ℤ) are the set of all whole numbers, including negative whole numbers. The
rational numbers, ℚ, are all numbers which can be represented as a/b, where
a and b are both integers. Finally, the real numbers (ℝ) are all numbers
which could be actual quantities.
Table 1 shows some examples for each type of number.
Table 1
| Type | Examples |
|---|---|
| Natural numbers | 1, 15, 69420 |
| Integers | 10, -32, -197 |
| Rational numbers | 5, 1/2, 71/3 |
| Real numbers | 1.23, √2, π |
A number system defines how we can represent different kinds of numbers.
Examples of number systems include decimal (0-9), binary (0-1), and hexadecimal (0-F). For more info, see the GCSE Link at the top of the page.
What is the largest number that can be represented using four hexadecimal digits?
FFFF16 = 6553510