
How Real-World Information Becomes Computable Data ◾ 37
is represented in each of these four numeral systems: tally marking, the
Roman numeral system, the decimal system, and the binary system.
In the tally marking system, all tally marks carry the same meaning: a
value of one. e number represented by a particular tally is simply the sum of
all the tally marks. In positional numbering systems, however, the digits of a
number carry a meaning that is dependent upon where the digit is positioned
within the number. Take the decimal number 323 for example. In this num-
ber, the rst digit means three hundreds and the last digit means three ...