MATHEMATICAL CHALLENGE FOR FILIPINO KIDS TRAINING PROGRAM

LEVEL 4 SESSION 1
ALL ABOUT NUMBER BASES
Any rational number can be expressed as the polynomial of p:
an p n an 1 p n 1 ... a0 p0 a1 p 1 ... a m p m
where an , an1 ,...a0 ,...a m can be any one of 0, 1, 2, 3, ,
represents the base.

p 1 , both m and n are positive integers, and p

Example
1. Expand 963.12 in base 10.
Solution:
963.12 9 102 6 101 3 100 110 1 2 10 2 . Any positive integer N can be expressed as the
N an p n an 1 p n 1 ... a0 p0
polynomial of p:
where an , an1 ,... , and a0 can be any one of 0, 1, 2, 3,,

p 1 , n is a nonnegative integer and p represents the base.

2. Expand 4321 in (1) base 10, (2) base 8, and (3) base 5.
Solution:
3
2
1
0
(1) 4 10 3 10 2 10 110
3
2
1
0
(2) 4 8 3 8 2 8 1 8
3
2
1
0
(3) 4 5 3 5 2 5 1 5
Note: Base 10 is also called the decimal form. Base 2 is also called the binary form.

Powers of some number bases

Fourth power
Binary
Base 2
16
Ternary
Base 3
81
Quinary
Base 5
625
Septenary
Base 7
2401
Octal
Base 8
4096
Decimal
Base 10
10, 000
Hexadecima Base 16
65, 536
l

Third power Second power

8
4
27
9
125
25
1343
49
512
64
1000
100
4096
256

First power
2
3
5
7
8
10
16

Zero power
1
1
1
1
1
1
1

Base counts and simple operations

The number of digits of base 10: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.
Note: 10 is not a digit and it is a number. In base 10, 9 is the largest digit.
Example
1. In our number system the base is ten. If the base were changed to four you would count as follows: 1, 2,
3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 20, 21, 22, 23, 30, What is the twenty-first number?
Solution:
Method 1: 1, 2, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 20, 21, 22, 23, 30, 31, 32, 33, 100, 101, 102, 103, 110, 111.
2
1
0
Method 2: 21 16 4 1 1 4 1 4 1 4 111 .
Base Converting
Converting a number from base b to base 10:
Example
1. Express 42five as a base ten numeral.
Solution:
4 5 2 22 .
Converting a number from base 10 to base b:
Division method.
(1) Determine the divisor by ranging check.

(2) Do the division.

(3) Write the number.
Example
1. Express the base ten numeral 26 as a base three numeral.
Solution:
2
3
2
1
Method 1: 9 3 26 3 27 . So the first divisor is 3 , the second divisor is 3 , and the last divisor is
30 .
2
9 26
18
8

2
38
6
2

2
12
2
0

So the answer is 2223 .

2
Method 2: 2610 2 3 2 3 2 2223 .
Method 3:

1010 3 3 3 1 10 10 10 10 1 3 101 3

310 103
2610 1010 1010 310 310 1013 1013 103 103 2223

Converting a number from base a to base b:

Example
1. What numeral in base 8 is equivalent to 3325 (denoting 332 in base 5)?
Solution:
2
Method 1: (1) Convert this number from base b to base 10: 3325 3 5 3 5 2 9210 .
2
0
(2) Next, convert base 10 numeral to base 8: 9210 1 8 3 8 4 8 1348 .
3325 3 52 3 5 2 3 31 8 178 28 1138 178 28 1328 28 1348
Method 2:
.

Brain Exercises
1. In our number system the base is ten. If the base were changed to eight you would count as follows: 1, 2,
3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, what would be twentieth number?
2. In our number system the base is ten. If the base were changed to two you would count as follows: 1, 10,
th
11, 100, 101, 110, what would be 8 number?
3. Expand 32 in (1) base 10, (2) base 8, and (3) base 5.
4. Do the following addition problems in base 10:
1 3
11
24

28

3 9

5. Do the following addition problems in base 6:

1 3
11
24

25

35

6. Do the following addition problems in base 2:

10 10
1 11

11 11

7. What is the value of 1 1 when written in base 2?

8. Add 1325 and 4415 .
9. Do the following subtraction problems in base five:
2 1
42
12 4
10. Do the following multiplication problems in base 8:
1 3
1 1
2 4

31 22
26

11. Convert 1342five to base three.

12. Give the base ten, common fraction representation for 0.123 four .
13. Express the base ten numeral 27 as a base three numeral.
14. Express the base 10 numeral 0.8 in base 5.

321 123
3 6

32 35

15. Express

123eight

as a base ten numeral.

16. Write the binary numeral for the decimal numeral 245.
17. Expand 432 in (1) base 10, (2) base 8, and (3) base 5.
18. In our number system the base is ten. If the base were changed to five you would count as follows: 1, 2,
3, 4, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, what would be the twentieth number?
19. Do the following addition problems in base 4:
1 3
23
3 3
11
1 2
22
20. Do the addition problems in base five:
22
44

32 13

12 34

21. Do the addition problems in base eight:

22
44

55

66 12

22. Do the following subtraction problems in base eight:

2 1
42
12 4
23. Do the following multiplication problems in base 5:
23
1 1
1 2
1 4
2 4

31 22
3 3

3 10

321 123
32 13

24. Express 4003five as a base ten numeral.

25. Express 35seven as a base ten numeral.
26. Express the base ten numeral 35 as a base tree numeral.
Mind Strainers

1. Find the positive integral base b such that 21b 54b 1354b .
2. The following multiplication problem is correctly done if the numbers are in base b. 15 15 321 . What
is b?
3. 792b is divisible by 297b . What is the value of base b?
4. Our number system is base 10, perhaps because we have ten fingers. In another world, the inhabitants
have a different number of fingers (y) and they use a base y number system. Here are two examples of
problems in this other would: 4 6 30 , and 4 7 34 . What is the value of 4 5 7 expressed in the
number system of this other would?
5. b is the smallest positive integral base for which 301b is a square number. What is the square root of
301b expressed in base b?
6. The base-10 numbers 235 and 57 are multiplied. The product is then written in base-6. Find the units
digit of the base-6 representation.
7. Express 0.510 in base 2.
8. In the base-three number system, a 20123 and b 2013 . What is the product ab expressed in the basethree number system?
Note: 2 2 in base three is 1 and 2 1 in base three is 0.
9. What is the sum of 1012 and 10112 ? Express your answer in base 2.
10. If the six-digit base-ten 2T 5T 44 is to be divisible by 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 and 11, find all possible values of T.
11. Express 125ten as a base eight number.
12. Express 32seven in base eight.
13. Express the following in base three: 312four .
14. When written in a certain positive base b, 363 (base 10) is 123 (base b). What is the value of b?
15. Find the sum of the values of A and B which make the following statement true: 23B1four 2 ABnine .

16. For what value(s) of t will the five-digit number

23t 426

be divisible by 5?

17. The three-digit base-six number, nmn6 , is equal to the product of 234 and 345 . What digit is represented
by n?
18. In base 5, what is the value of 2710 3145 ?
2
n 2 in base 10. What is the value of b,
19. In base b, 441b is equal to n in base 10, and 351b is equal to
expressed in base 10?
2

20. If the four-digit base-six 2 X 5Y6 is to be divisible by 106 , how many such numbers are there?
21. The symbol 25b represents a two-digit number in the base b. If the number 52b is double the number
25b , then b is?
Brain Provokers
1. The numbers 2135 , 1667 , 543218 , 176549 , and 6245310 are written on separate slips of paper. If two of the
slips are selected randomly, what is the probability that the sum (in base 10) of the numbers written on
them is odd? Express your answer as a common fraction.
2. How many zeros do 100! End in base 6 systems?
3. The base-three repeating decimal 0.12 is equivalent to what base-ten common fraction?
4. Marie has an infinite number if balls and empty boxes available to her. The empty boxes, each capable of
holding three balls, are arranged in a row from right to left. At the first step, she places a ball in the first
box of the row. At each subsequent step, she places a ball in the first box of the row that still has room for
a ball and empties any previous boxes. How many balls in total are in the boxes as a result of Maries
2016th step?
5. The increasing sequence 1, 3, 4, 9, 10, 12, 13, consists of all those positive integers which are powers
of 3 or sum of distinct powers of 3. Find the 100 th term of this sequence (where 1 is the 1st term, 3 is the
2nd term, and so on).

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