| How do we count?
Normally, we count in the system we call ‘denary’. We start with 0
then go to 1 then to a new symbol that we write as 2 and call ‘two’.
This continues until we run out of symbols. So far, it looks like this:
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
At this point we have used all the symbols once and, to show this, we
put a ‘1’ to the left of the numbers as we re-use them. This gives us:
10
11
12
13
14
. . . and so on up to 19 when we put a 2 on the left-hand side and start again 20, 21, 22 etc.
When we reach 99, we again add a ‘1’ on the left-hand side and put
the other digits back to zero to give 100. After we reach 999, we go to
1000 and so on.
Counting is not easy. We often take it for granted but if we think back
to our early days at school, it took the teacher over a year before we
were happy and reasonably competent. So counting is more difficult
than microprocessors - you’ve mastered the difficult part already!
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