In the past, experts developed calculating machines that worked with three digits, a ternary system, that they hoped would allow for more efficient information processing. In principle, any number ...

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. In the usual decimal system, the ...

The binary system can represent any number using a string of 1s and 0s. Though it is used by computers today, it was first described by the 17th century mathematician Gottfried Leibniz.

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.