Abstractions blog Smaller Is Better: Why Finite Number Systems Pack More Punch Recent progress on the “sum product” problem recalls a celebrated mathematical result that revealed the power of ...

The twin primes conjecture is one of the most important and difficult questions in mathematics. Two mathematicians have solved a parallel version of the problem for small number systems.

1. Introduction The conventional floating-point operation system specified in IEEE Standard 754 comprises binary-number operation systems corresponding to data representation formats such as a ...

The natives of a remote Polynesian Island invented a binary number system, similar to the one used by computers to calculate, centuries before Western mathematicians did, new research suggests ...

How did this come to be? In principle, any number can be represented by any number system, whether the latter be base 10, base 60, base 3 or base 2. The math works perfectly in each case.

Binary, or base two, is the number system that computer systems use, as opposed to the decimal, or base ten, system used in our day-to-day lives. Binary is generally associated with high ...

A wildebeest knows when it is outnumbered by a pack of hungry hyenas, thanks to an imprecise, primal brain function called the Approximate Number System, or ANS. Animals have it and human babies ...

The unlikely solution led him to the third of just four number systems that abide by a close analog of standard arithmetic and helped spur the rise of modern algebra.