Octal

 

Octal Our Definition Sources and Online Definitions Web-o-pedia Smart Computing

 

Our Definition   The base-8 number system which is used by programmers becuase it is easier to understand than binary and as a three bit character saves space. Easier to read than binrary, but not quite as easy decimal, which is how we usually read numbers.

 

Sources and Online Definitions

 

Web-o-pedia

"Refers to the base-8 number system, which uses just eight unique symbols (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7). Programs often display data in octal format because it is relatively easy for humans to read and can easily be translated into binary format, which is the most important format for computers. By contrast, decimal format is the easiest format for humans to read because it is the one we use in everyday life, but translating between decimal and binary formats is relatively difficult.

In octal format, each digit represents three binary digits, as shown:

With this table it is easy to translate between octal and binary. For example, the octal number 3456 is 011 100 101 110 in binary."

 

 

Smart Computing

 

"The base 8 number system, which uses the digits 0 through 7. You convert binary numbers into octal by dividing them into groups of three bits, because three is one three-digit binary combination for each octal number.

 

From the Latin term “octo,” meaning eight; an octal is a number system that uses eight single-digit numbers: 0 through 7. There are no 8s or 9s. In this base-8 number system, the number sequence goes like this: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, and so on.

 

Base-8, or octal, counting probably seems awkward to most people because the base-10 is so common. We all know the base-10 system, which emerged centuries ago simply because humans had 10 fingers and thumbs to use for counting. Unfortunately, base-10 isn’t useful to mathematicians because it has only two divisors, and 10 is not a prime number. Several European mathematicians tried to replace the decimal system during the 18th and 19th centuries. The mathematicians didn’t succeed, but they did try binary (base 2), octal (base 8), and hexadecimal (base 16) systems.

 

The octal system, although not popular for mathematical purposes, became useful in 20th-century computer science. Programmers use it as a shorthand approach to represent binary numbers. Binary numbers use six-bit characters. With the octal system, each three bits is converted into one octal digit, saving considerable diskette or hard drive space."

 

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