BICIMAL NUMBERS

By Centre for Elites & Decroly Education Centre

The bicimals can be referred to as the rational binary numbers. A bicimals is the base-two analogue of
a decimal; it has a bicimal point and bicimal places and can be terminating or repeating.

Like decimals, bicimals are created from fractions through long division. Also like decimals, bicimals
can be converted back to fractions. You convert a bicimal to a fraction the same way you convert a
decimal to a fraction, you just work in binary instead of decimal and use powers of two instead of
powers of ten.

Converting a bicimal fraction into a Decimal Fraction

The process of converting a binary fraction into its decimal equivalent is done in two steps with the
numbers the left-hand and right-hand sides of the radix point separately.

When looking at converting the binary on the left-hand side of the radix point we convert it just as we
would when converting any binary integer number into its decimal equivalent.

Example 2.13:

1012 = (1 × 22 ) + (0 × 21 ) + (1 × 20 )

= (1 × 4) + (0 × 2) + (1 × 1) = 5

Next, we work out the chunk at the right-hand side of the radix point. We do exactly the same thing
here as we did on the left, just with the fractional columns:

0.1012 = (1 × 2−1 ) + (0 × 2−2 ) + (1 × 2−3 )

1 1 1
= (1 × ) + (0 × ) + (1 × )
2 4 8

= (1 × 0.5) + (0 × 0.25) + (1 × 0.125) = 0.62510

∴ 0.1012 = 0.62510

So we have a fractional part that represents 0.62510.

So we now combine the integer part (5) and fractional parts (0.625) together on either side of the radix
point. This gives us the number 5.62510.

A terminating bicimal is always easy to convert to a fraction: the numerator of the resulting fraction is
the bicimal itself, treated as an integer; the denominator is 2n, where n is the number of bicimal places.

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Example 2.12: Convert 0.1101 to a fraction and then to base ten

Solution

1101 1101
0.1101 = 4
=
2 10000

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This is in decimal equal to = 0.8125
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Example 2.13: Convert the number 1011.00112 to base ten.

Solution:

(
(1011.0011)2 = (1 23 + 0  22 + 1 21 + 1 20 ) + (0  2−1 + 0  2−2 + 1 2−3 + 1 2−4 ) 10 )
= 11.1875
Converting from a Decimal Fraction to a Binary Fraction (Bicimal)

This is also done in two steps with the two sides of the decimal number separately.

Example 2. 14: Convert 9.12510 to bicimal

Solution

We shall have to deal with the left-hand side of the radix point first. 9 will be converted as seen above

910 = (1 × 23 ) + (0 × 22 ) + (1 × 21 ) + (1 × 20 ) = 10012

Next we need to deal with the fractional part of our decimal number (which as a reminder is 0.125).
Again, there is a simple step-by-step method for performing the conversion.

To begin with we take the decimal fraction and multiply it by two (i.e. 210 × 0.12510 = 0.25010 ). We
then take the whole number part of the result as the first binary digit after the radix point. In this case
it is 0 so we have got as far as 0.12510 = 0.0?2

Next we disregard the whole number part of the previous result (i.e. ignore the 0 before the radix point)
and multiply the result by two again. The whole number part of this new result is the second digit after
the radix point (i.e. 210 × 0.25010 = 0.5010). In this case, the whole number part is again a 0 so we
have now got as far as 0.12510 = 0.00?2

Again, disregarding the whole number part of the result and again multiply by 2 (i.e. 210 × 0.5010 =
1.010). Again we take the whole number part, this time as the value of the third digit after the radix
point. In this case the whole number part is a 1 so we have now got to 0.12510 = 0.001?2

Again we drop the whole number part but as the fractional part we have left is 0. As we have nothing
left we are done. This leaves us with our final representation; 0.12510 is exactly equivalent to 0.0012.

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Now that we have extracted both the integer part of our original number and the fractional part we can
finally combine them on either side of the radix point:

9.12510 = 1001.0012

Example 2.15: Convert the decimal number 11.187510 to base 2

Solution
First, look at the integer part: 11.
Table 2.1:
Quotient Remainder

11/2 5 1 = a0

5/2 2 1 = a1

2/2 1 0 = a2

1/2 0 1 = a3

Hence

(11)10 = (a3 a2 a1a0 ) 2

= (1011) 2
Now let us look at the decimal part, that is, 0.1875.
Table 2.2: Converting a base-10 fraction to binary representation.

Number after Number before

Number
decimal decimal

0.1875  2 0.375 0.375 0 = a−1

0.375  2 0.75 0.75 0 = a−2

0.75  2 1.5 0.5 1 = a −3

0.5  2 1.0 0.0 1 = a−4

Hence

(0.1875)10 = (a−1a− 2 a−3a− 4 )2

= (0.0011)2
Having calculated 1110 = 10112
and 0.1875510 = 0.00112
we have11.187510 = 1011.10112

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Infinite Fractions

Whilst binary and decimal fractions both work on the same principles, each has their own problems
when it comes to representing numbers accurately with a given number of digits.

In both cases there are certain numbers that will always result in something called a rounding error,
where the number cannot be represented exactly and the nearest number has to be used instead.

Example 2.16: Find the binary equivalent of 0.3 is summarized in Table 3.

Table 3. Converting a base-10 fraction to approximate binary representation.

Number after Number before

Number
decimal decimal
0.3  2 0.6 0.6 0 = a−1
0.6  2 1.2 0.2 1 = a−2
0.2  2 0.4 0.4 0 = a −3
0.4  2 0.8 0.8 0 = a−4
0.8  2 1.6 0.6 1 = a −5

As you can see the process will never end. In this case, the number can only be approximated in binary
format, that is,

(0.3)10  (a −1a − 2 a − 3a − 4 a −5 ) 2 = (0.01001) 2

Q: But what is the mathematics behinds this process of converting a decimal number to binary format?
A: Let z be the decimal number written as
z = x. y
where
x is the integer part and y is the fractional part.
We want to find the binary equivalent of x . So we can write

x = an 2 n + an−1 2 n−1 + ... + a0 2 0

If we can now find a 0 ,. . ., a n in the above equation then

( x)10 = (a n a n −1 . . .a0 ) 2

We now want to find the binary equivalent of y . So we can write

y = b−1 2 −1 + b−2 2 −2 + ... + b−m 2 − m

If we can now find b−1 ,. . ., b− m in the above equation then

( y)10 = (b−1b−2 . . .b−m ) 2

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2.1 ADDING AND SUBTRACTING BINARY NUMBERS

It is possible to add and subtract binary numbers in a similar way to base 10 numbers.

For example, 1 + 1 + 1 = 3 in base 10 becomes 1 + 1 + 1 = 11 in binary.

In the same way, 3 – 1 = 2 in base 10 becomes 11 – 1 = 10 in binary.

When you add and subtract binary numbers you will need to be careful when 'carrying' or 'borrowing'
as these will take place more often.

1+0=1
1 + 1 = 10
1 + 1 + 1 = 11
1–0=1
10 – 1 = 1
11 – 1 = 10
Example 2.17: Calculate, using binary numbers:

(a) 111 + 100 = 1011

(b) 101 + 110 = 1011
(c) 1111 + 111 = 10110
Example 2.18: Calculate the binary numbers:

(a) 111 – 101 = 10

(b) 110 – 11 = 11
(c) 1100 – 101 = 111

SELF-ASSESSMENT ACTIVITY

1. Calculate the binary numbers:

(a) 11 + 1
(b) 11 + 11
(c) 111 + 11
(d) 111 + 10
(e) 1110 + 111
(f) 1100 + 110
(g) 1111 + 10101
(h) 1100 + 11001
(i) 1011 + 1101
(j) 1110 + 10111
(k) 1110 + 1111
(l) 11111 +
11101
2.

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3. Calculate the binary numbers:
(a) 11 – 10
(b) 110 – 10
(c) 1111 – 110
(d) 100 – 10
(e) 100 – 11
(h) 11011 – 110
(i) 1111 – 111
(j) 110101 – 1010
(k) 11011 – 111

4. Solve the following equations, where all numbers, including x, are binary:
(a) x + 11 = 1101
(b) x – 10 = 101
(c) x – 1101 = 11011
(d) x + 1110 = 10001
(e) x + 111 = 11110
(f) x – 1001 = 11101