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Decimal

Decimal is the base-10 numeral system for representing real numbers. The term "denary" is also used for this system in computer science education, although "decimal" is the more traditional name (Langfield and Duddell 2019). The expression of a number using the decimal system is called its decimal expansion, examples of which include 1, 13, 2028, 12.1, and 3.14159.

Each of the Arabic numerals 0 to 9 is called a decimal digit, and the period placed to the right of the units place in a decimal number is called the decimal point (or, in the case that a comma is instead used for this purpose, the decimal comma).

In contrast, the binary numeral system uses only the binary digits 0 and 1.

See also

10, Base, Binary, Binary Digit, Binary Expansion, Decimal Comma, Decimal Digit, Decimal Expansion, Decimal Point, Digit, Hexadecimal, Negadecimal, Numeral System, Octal

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References

Langfield, S. and Duddell, D. Cambridge International AS and A Level Computer Science Coursebook. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, §1.01, 2019. https://assets.cambridge.org/97811087/33755/excerpt/9781108733755_excerpt.pdf.Pappas, T. "The Evolution of Base Ten." The Joy of Mathematics. San Carlos, CA: Wide World Publ./Tetra, pp. 2-3, 1989.Wells, D. The Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Numbers. Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, pp. 78-80, 1986.Wolfram, S. A New Kind of Science. Champaign, IL: Wolfram Media, p. 1168, 2002.

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Decimal

Cite this as:

Weisstein, Eric W. "Decimal." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/Decimal.html

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