Q.Explain the decimal and the binary number systems, and state why the binary system is used to represent information in digital electronic circuits.
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Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →The decimal system, used in ordinary arithmetic, has ten distinct digit symbols ( through ) and place values that are successive powers of ten. The binary system has only two digit symbols (bits), and , with place values that are successive powers of two. A digital circuit's basic building block, a transistor switch (Section 9.23), settles naturally into only two stable states (cut-off/OFF and saturation/ON), corresponding to two clean, well-separated voltage levels. Representing numbers using a system that likewise has only two symbols maps directly onto this physical reality: each bit corresponds to the ON/OFF state of one switch. Representing all ten decimal digits electronically would instead require t …
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