Working in hex or binary can feel strange and confusing compared with the base 10 number system used in our everyday world. It's not rocket science, but it requires adjusting how one thinks about ...

Math with binary numbers isn't hard either. Take for example decimal addition of 183 plus 19. First we add 3 + 9, that's 12, so we put 2 as the sum and carry 1 to the ten's column.

But, for medium size numbers, the system switches over to binary. The Mangarevans had special words for 10, 20, 40, and 80 — the first few powers of two, multiplied by ten.

They find that the former Mangarevans combined base-10 representation with a binary system. They had number words for 1 to 10, and then for 10 multiplied by several powers of 2.

They find that the former Mangarevans combined base-10 representation with a binary system. They had number words for 1 to 10, and then for 10 multiplied by several powers of 2.

Binary arithmetic, the basis of all virtually digital computation today, is usually said to have been invented at the start of the eighteenth century by the German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz ...