Problem Set#1
Multiple Choice Test
Chapter 01.04 Binary Representation
COMPLETE SOLUTION SET
1. (25)10 = (?)2
(A) 100110
(B) 10011
(C) 11001
(D) 110010
Solution
The correct answer is (C).
Quotient Remainder
25/2 12 1
12/2 6 0
6/2 3 0
3/2 1 1
1/2 0 1
The binary representation is therefore
(25)10 = (11001)2
2. (1101)2 = (?)10
(A) 3
(B) 13
(C) 15
(D) 26
Solution
The correct answer is (B).
To convert from base 2 to base 10,
(1101)2 = 1 × 2 0 + 0 × 21 + 1 × 2 2 + 1 × 2 3
= 1+ 0 + 4 + 8
= 13
3. (25.375)10 = (? . ?)2
(A) 100110.011
(B) 11001.011
(C) 10011.0011
(D) 10011.110
Solution
The correct answer is (B).
Integer portion:
Quotient Remainder
25/2 12 1
12/2 6 0
6/2 3 0
3/2 1 1
1/2 0 1
Decimal portion:
Number Number after decimal Number before decimal
0.375 × 2 0.750 0.750 0
0.750 × 2 1.500 0.500 1
0.500 × 2 1.000 0 1
(25.375)10 = (11001.011)2
4. Representing 2 in a fixed point register with 2 bits for the integer part and 3 bits for
the fractional part gives a round off error of most nearly
(A) -0.085709
(B) 0.0392
(C) 0.1642
(D) 0.2892
Solution
The correct answer is (B).
2 = 1.4142
If two bits for the integer portion are used,
(1)10 = (01)2 = (1)2
Decimal portion:
Number Number after decimal Number before decimal
0.4142 × 2 0.8284 0.8284 0
0.8284 × 2 1.6568 0.6568 1
0.6568 × 2 1.3136 0.3136 1
Since only three bits are allowed,
(0.4142)10 ≈ (0.011)2
Total approximation
(1.4142)10 ≈ (1.011)2
Converting (1.011)2 back to base 10 yields
(1.011)2 = 1 × 2 0 + 0 × 2 −1 + 1 × 2 −2 + 1 × 2 −3
= (1.375)10
Subtracting gives the round-off error as
1.4142 − 1.3750 = 0.0392
5. An engineer working for the Department of Defense is writing a program that
transfers non-negative real numbers to integer format. To avoid overflow problems, the
maximum non-negative integer that can be represented in a 5-bit integer word is
(A) 16
(B) 31
(C) 63
(D) 64
Solution
The correct answer is (B).
The maximum non-negative integer that can be represented using 5 bits is given by
(11111)2 = (1 × 2 0 + 1 × 21 + 1 × 2 2 + 1 × 2 3 + 1 × 2 4 )
= 1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + 16
= 31
6. For a numerically controlled machine, integers need to be stored in a memory
location. The minimum number of bits needed for an integer word to represent all
integers between 0 and 1024 is
(A) 8
(B) 9
(C) 10
(D) 11
Solution
The correct answer is (D).
If you have
• 1 bit for representing integers, the maximum integer that can be represented is 1;
• 2 bits for representing integers, the maximum integer that can be represented is 3;
• 3 bits for representing integers, the maximum integer that can be represented is 7;
• 4 bits for representing integers, the maximum integer that can be represented is
15;
• 5 bits for representing integers, the maximum integer that can be represented is
31;
and so on.
If you notice the trend, if n bits are available to represent integers, the maximum
integer that can be represented is 2 n − 1 .
For example, if you have 4 bits for representing integers, the maximum integer
that can be represented is 2 4 − 1 = 15 as can be witnessed by
(1111)2 = (1 × 2 3 + 1 × 2 2 + 1 × 21 + 1 × 2 0 ) = 15
So what would it take to represent integers up to 1024.
2 n − 1 = 1024
2 n = 1025
ln(2 n ) = ln(1025)
n ln(2) = ln(1025)
n × 0.6931 = 6.932
n = 10.000762
Since n is an integer larger than 10.000762,
n=11.
