Ternaryjärjestelmässä

Ternaryjärjestelmässä, known in English as the ternary numeral system or base-3 system, is a positional numeral system that uses three distinct digits, typically 0, 1, and 2, as its base. This system represents numbers by powers of three, similar to how the decimal system (base-10) uses powers of ten or the binary system (base-2) uses powers of two.

In the ternary system, each position of a digit represents a power of three. Moving from right to left, the positions represent 3^0 (which is 1), 3^1 (which is 3), 3^2 (which is 9), 3^3 (which is 27), and so on. For example, the ternary number 120 would be interpreted in base-10 as (1 * 3^2) + (2 * 3^1) + (0 * 3^0), which equals (1 * 9) + (2 * 3) + (0 * 1) = 9 + 6 + 0 = 15.

The ternary system is less common in everyday computing than the binary system, which is fundamental to digital electronics due to its two stable states (on/off). However, balanced ternary systems, which use digits -1, 0, and 1 (often represented as -, 0, and + or T, 0, 1), have theoretical advantages in certain computational applications due to their symmetry and potential for greater efficiency in specific arithmetic operations. While not widely implemented, the concept of ternary representation remains an important topic in theoretical computer science and mathematics.