Decimal to Binary conversion
In you are in any engineering discipline that involves digital electronics or computing, you will have to know how to convert between number systems. Generally binary and hexadecimal number systems are used in digital electronics and in computer engineering. Conversion between different number systems are an integral part of any engineering that involves computing and electronics.. We discuss the details in this article. We are going to start with a number system that we learn to use since birth. We will first learn to convert decimal to binary and then vice-versa. Conversion between number systems are always conducted between two different number systems.
Decimal numbers are converted to binary by repeatedly dividing the decimal number by 2. This method is called “Repeated Division By 2”. The steps are shown below. The diagram below shows the process by converting a decimal number to its binary form.
Steps:
1. Take the number and divide it by 2.
2. If the reminder is 0, the binary bit is 0
3. If the reminder is not 0, the binary bit is 1.
4. Repeat the division until the dividend becomes 0
Note: Fractions e.g. 0.5 is rounded to 1
Binary to Decimal conversion
Decimal to Binary conversion is very simple. It is best described by showing the actual process. Please refer to the diagram below.
Scientific Calculator Method
Any scientific calculator can be used to convert between number systems. Scientific calculators can hold number systems that includes Decimal, Binary, Hexadecimal & Octal. Numbers in any of these numbers systems can easily be converted to any other supported number system with just a few button press. The diagram below shows how a Casio scientific calculator can be used to convert a decimal number to a binary number. We are using as Casio – fx 991EX scientific calculator. Other Casio scientific calculators also use the same procedure. If the reader has a calculator of some other brand, please refer to the calculator user manual.
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