KS3: Bases

Dr J Frost (jfrost@tiffin.kingston.sch.uk)
www.drfrostmaths.com
@DrFrostMaths

Objectives:
1. To appreciate how we can have different number systems using
different ‘bases’.
2. Count in different bases.
3. To convert numbers from decimal to another base.
4. To convert numbers from any base to decimal.

Last modified: 21st June 2017

Starter
Can you spot any patterns in how we’re counting up? How
does this pattern relate to the ‘base’?
Base 10 Base 2 Base 3 Base 5 Base 2 Base 16

5 0
6 1 2 344 111 99
7 10 10 400 1000 9A
8 11 11 401 1001 9B
9 100 12 402 1010 9C
10 … 20 … … 9D
11 21 9E
12 … 9F
… A0
…

Things you might have spotted:

• The maximum value for any digit is one less than the base.
• When we get to the maximum value for a digit, it resets back to 0, and the next digit
(left of it) goes up by 1.
?
Introduction
When we count up with ‘normal’ numbers, what is actually
happening at the indicated points?
6 97
7 98
8 99 Both digits are at
9 The maximum 100 their maximum so
10 value for a digit is
101 ? back to
both reset
9. So it resets to 0, 0. The hundreds
11 …
? digit
and the units digit goes up by 1.
12 goes up by 1
… because of the
‘carry’.
Follow up question:

• What do you think it means for our ‘normal’ number system to be base 10?
Each digit has 10 possible values.
?
Base

! The base of a number system is the number of possible values

for each digit.

Values for each Base Name of

digit number system
0 to 9 10 ? Decimal?
0 to 1 2 ? Binary ?
0 to F 16 Hexadecimal
(A=10, B=11, ... F=15) ? ?
Example of counting
We want to count in base 2 (binary).
We saw the possible values for each digit are 0 to 1.

0
1
10
11
100
101 Next number?
110
111
1000
1010
1111
Counting Game!
Everyone stand up. Take it in turns to count in ternary (base 3), starting at 0. If you get it
wrong, you sit down.

0 120 1002 1200

1 121 1010 1201
2 122 1011 1202
10 200 1012 1210
11 201 1020 1211
12 202 1021 1212
20 210 1022 1220
21 211 1100 1221
22 212 1101 1222
100 220 1102 2000
101 221 1110 2001
102 222 1111 2002
110 1000 1112 2010
111 1001 1120 2011
112 1121 2012
1122 2020
Exercise 1
3 What is the maximum value of each digit
1 Write out the first ten numbers in each in base 8?
of these bases, starting at 1.
?
Answer: 7

a Base 2: 1, 10, 11, 100, 101, 110, Find the next number is base 5:
? 1010
111, 1000, 1001,
4
a) 4  10? b) 234  240 ?
b Base 5: 1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 11,
? c) 243  244 ? d) 344  400 ?
12, 13, 14, 20
c Base 4: 1, 2, 3, 10, 11, 12, A number in base has digits.
13, 20, 21, 22? 5
b) How many possible values are there
2 What number comes after 555 in:
a Base 6? 1000
for each digit? ?
b Base 7? 556
? c) Therefore how many possible
numbers up to digits are there? ?
?
N How many times does the digit 0 occur if you write out the numbers 1 to 111111
in binary? (Hint: consider all two-digit numbers, then three, and so on)
2 digit numbers: occurrence You can see the first numbers are powers of 2 and the second are
3 digit numbers: occurrences going up by 1 each time.
Why: Consider just 5 digit numbers. There are possible numbers
4 digit numbers: occurrences
?two possibilities). For each digit half of the possibilities will be 0,
(because the first digit has to be 1 but the other digits each have
5 digit numbers: occurrences
thus each digit (except the first) contributes zeros. There’s 4 digits
6 digit number: occurrences which contributes zeroes, thus .
Total = 129 In general for digit numbers, zeroes will be seen.
Any Base Decimal
If we were to write out the digits of the decimal
number “2493”, what is the value of each digit?
(Hint: Think primary school!)

1000 100 ? 10 1 This means number

is in base 10. We

multiply 2 4 9 310 don’t include it if

the base is obvious
from the context.

?
2000 +400 +90?+ 3 = 2493
Any Base Decimal
Now suppose we had a number in base 5 instead.
How do we convert it to decimal?

125 25 ? 5 1

multiply 4 3 0 15
500 + 75 + 0 ?+ 1 = 576?
Test Your Understanding
Copy and complete in your book.

8 4 2? 1 64 16 ? 4 1

1 0 1 12 3 3 0 24
8 + 0 +?2 + 1 = 11 192 + 48 + ? 0 + 2 = 242

27 9 ?3 1

1 2 2 03
27 + 18 +? 6 + 0 = 51
 , G e t
a ya n
a M re !
I’m t O f H e
e O u
M
The Maya numeral system is base 20
(“vigesimal”).

Use the approach you used for

converting other bases to decimal to
vote for the correct number.
Example
20 1

60 + 0 = 0

3 3 06 03 00
Q1
20 1

120 + 6 = 126

661261 051 56
Q2

1232435 32 23
Q3

2391441 291
Q4
400 20 1

400 + 0 + 11 = 411

1212111 114 11
Q5

490118019801380
Q6
8000 400 20 1

152000 + 5600 + 180 +4

=

157784582984396884196884
Exercise 2
In computing, a byte consists of 8 bits, where each bit
4 is a binary digit. What is the largest possible number
Convert the following numbers from
1 in decimal that a byte can represent?
the indicated base to decimal.
11012 13 ? ?
1112 7 ? 5
In general, what is the largest number in decimal that
can be represented by binary digits? Give your
1100112 51 ? answer in terms of .

10223
35 ? ?
7348
476 ? 6
A three-digit number is 100 in decimal. What’s the
68 ? smallest the base can be?
In base 4 the biggest number in decimal is , whereas
2335 198 ? ?
in base 5 it’s . So 5 is the smallest base.
5306
2 What is the following Mayan number The number with digits , where and are unknown
in decimal? digits, is 107 in decimal if the number was originally in
N base 5, and 205 in decimal if it was originally in base
7. Determine and .

160?001
3 When the number “a036” in base 7
is converted to decimal, the value is
1742. Determine the value of the
digit .
Solving, .
?
432 is in an unknown base, but when converted to
decimal, gives 164. Determine the base.
Let the base be . Then . Solving this quadratic
N equation gives .

? ?
Summary So Far
We have learnt that the numbers we use in everyday life are in
“base 10”.
?

?
But numbers can be in any ‘base’ such as base 2 (binary).
The base of a number system is
? values for each digit.
the number of possible

To convert a number to decimal, we just consider the value of

each digit, just like in decimal each digit represents “units”, “tens”,
“hundreds” and so on.

?
Decimal Any Base
Do the opposite! Convert 18 from decimal to binary.

16 8 ?4 2 1
1? 0 0 1 0 2
? ? ? ?
16 + 0 + 0 + 2 + 0 = 18
Bro Tip: Start with the highest multiple possible of the
highest power (in this case 16). Then see what’s left and
continue to get the digits.
Another Example

Convert 272 for decimal to base 5.

?
125 25 5 1
2 0 4 2 5
? ? ? ?
250+ 0 + 20+ 2= 272
Test Your Understanding

Convert 100 from decimal to base 4.

64 16 ? 4 1
1? 2? 1? 0? 4
64 +32 + 4 + 0 = 100
Decimal Any Base
It can help to write out multiples of your various powers. Below is base 6.

Multiples of 6 Multiples of 62 Multiples of 63

c. We can only
x1 6 have 1 lot of 6.
36 216
x2 12 72 432 a. We can have
x3 18 108 b. We can have 648 3 lots of 63.

x4 24 144 4 lots of 62.

864
x5 30 180 1080

Therefore what is 800 is base 6?

3412
?
Exercise 3
1 Copy and complete the 3 The decimal number “7a2” is 10322 in
following table. base 5. Determine the digit .

Decimal Binary (Base 2) Base 6 ?

3 11 3 1000 is a four-digit decimal number
? ? N
whose first digit one. In what other
8 1000 ? 12 ? bases can this can be converted to such
that we still have a four-digit number
10 1010 ? 14 ? which starts with 1?
If the base is , has to be between 500
77 ?
1001101 205?
and 1000 (if it were less, the first digit
102 ?
1100110 250? ?
wouldn’t be 1). Only 8 and 9 satisfy
this.
105? 1101001
? 253
1365 10101010101
? 10153
? N
Prove that there is no base such that
123 in decimal can be converted to:
i. 45 in that base.
2 Convert 123 in decimal to Mayan
numerals (recall that Mayan is base 20, and that ii. 456 in that base. ?
a horizontal line means 5, a dot 1 and a shell 0).
Solving gives ,
neither or which are integers.
? ?
Decimal Hexadecimal
The most well-known usage of hexadecimal is to represent colours.

Each colour can be

composed of red, green and
blue light, each of intensity
varying between 0 and 255.

...which can be represented

using just 6 digits in
hexadecimal, 2 for each of the A means 10, B means 11, ...
three colour components. F means 15
Multiples
of 16: RED GREEN BLUE HEXADECIMAL

0: 0
1: 16 255 255 255 FF, FF, FF
2: 32
3: 48
4: 64 0? 0? 0? 00, 00,
? 00
5: 80
6: 96
7: 112 0? 255
? 0? 00, FF,
? 00
8: 128
9: 144
A: 160 255
? 255
? 0? FF, FF,
? 00
B: 176
C: 192
D: 208 75
? 172
? 198
? 4B, AC,
? C6
E: 224
F: 240
255
? 128
? 0? FF, 80,
? 00
Adding in decimal

2 0 5 3
+ 3 6 1 9

We’d use the 2 then carry the 1.

Adding in other bases

1 0 0 1
+ 1 1 0 1
1
? 0? 1
? 1
? 0
?

1
Another Example

1 0 1 0
+ 1 1 0 1 1
1 0 0 ? 1 0 1
Test Your Understanding

1 1 0 1
+ 1 1 1
1 0 1? 0 0

2 3 0 35
+ 2 2 45
?
3 0 3 2
Exercise 4
Convert the following to hexadecimal.
QQQ Time

1a The number of possible 4 3900 ?

values each ?digit can
have.
5 11011 ?

1b Because each digit must

be between 0 and one
less than the? base/the 6 2400 ?
digits must be less than
the base. 7 100100 ?

2a 2 ?

8 a = 2, b =?4
2b 178 ?

3 551 ?