Computer Science Illuminated, 7th Edition

2.1 Numbers and Computing

Numbers are crucial to computing. In addition to using a computer to execute numeric computations, all types of information that we store and manage using a computer are ultimately stored as numbers. At the lowest level, computers store all information using just the digits 0 and 1. So to begin our exploration of computers, we need to first begin by exploring numbers.

First, let’s recall that numbers can be classified into all sorts of categories. There are natural numbers, negative numbers, rational numbers, irrational numbers, and many others that are important in mathematics. Only some of these are crucial to the understanding of computing. Let’s review the relevant category definitions briefly.

First, let’s define ...