Nonants

Nonants are a type of mathematical concept, specifically related to number bases. A nonant is a digit in a base-9 number system, also known as the nonary system. In any number system, the digits used range from zero up to one less than the base. Therefore, in the base-9 system, the available digits are 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. Each of these symbols represents a nonant when used in a nonary number.

The nonary system, like other positional numeral systems, represents numbers as a sum of powers of the base, multiplied by the corresponding digit. For example, the nonary number 123 would be interpreted as (1 * 9^2) + (2 * 9^1) + (3 * 9^0), which equals 81 + 18 + 3 = 102 in the familiar base-10 system. The term "nonant" itself is derived from the Latin word "nonus," meaning ninth. While not as commonly used as decimal (base-10) or binary (base-2), number systems with bases other than 10, including base-9, have applications in various fields such as computer science and theoretical mathematics for specific algorithms or representations. The digits in any base system are fundamentally the building blocks for representing all possible numbers within that system.