nondecimal

Nondecimal refers to numeral systems that do not use base-10. In base-n systems, each digit represents a power of n. The radix n determines the number of distinct symbols needed, from 0 to n-1.

The most common nondecimal systems are binary (base-2), octal (base-8), and hexadecimal (base-16). For bases above ten, symbols extend beyond 0-9, typically using letters A, B, C, etc., to represent values ten and above. Other historical bases include sexagesimal (base-60) and duodecimal (base-12).

Numbers are written as sequences of digits with positional values. For example, in base-2 the string 1011 represents eight plus two plus one equals 11 in decimal. Fractions can be represented with a radix point, using negative powers of the base. Converting between bases involves repeated division or multiplication or using intermediary decimal forms.

Nondecimal representations are common in computing and digital technology. Binary is used by processors and storage; octal and hexadecimal provide compact representations and are convenient for debugging and memory addressing. Hexadecimal is widely used in color codes and machine instructions. Decimal remains the most familiar before conversion and display, but nondecimal systems are essential for low-level computation and historical numeral theory.