[Guest]

Hello Everybody,

I have a hard time making connection with numberals in bases other than base 10. I have do this base 3 subtraction and it goes like this: "What is 21010 (base 3) - 1122 (base 3)?"

OK, this is how I did it:

2 1 0 1 0(base 3)

- 1 1 2 2(base 3)

___________________________

Top row: after the borrowing process is done, I ended up with this:

1 10 9 10 10(base 3)

- 1 1 2 2(base 3)

___________________________________

1 9 8 8 8(base 3)

Is 19888(base 3) a proper answer?

[Thalia]

I have never worked with base 3 before but this is what I am getting.

2 1 0 1 0(base 3)

- 1 1 2 2(base 3)

-----------------

1 2 1 1 1

Since the last digit of the top number is 0, you borrow from the 1 like in regular subtraction. However, the 0 becomes a 3, not a 10, so 3-2=1. You do the same for the other digits. As I said, I have never done this before so this is my theory. I have no idea how a 3-0 would work but fortunately, that isn't necessary for this one. I checked with a base calculator and it seems to work. Good luck!

Edited February 17, 2011 by Thalia

[Guest]

I have never worked with base 3 before but this is what I am getting.

2 1 0 1 0(base 3)

- 1 1 2 2(base 3)

-----------------

1 2 1 1 1

Since the last digit of the top number is 0, you borrow from the 1 like in regular subtraction. However, the 0 becomes a 3, not a 10, so 3-2=1. You do the same for the other digits. As I said, I have never done this before so this is my theory. I have no idea how a 3-0 would work but fortunately, that isn't necessary for this one. I checked with a base calculator and it seems to work. Good luck!

Thanks, Thalia, for being here to lend a helping hand. My next step is to go back and really study the different examples in the book and see if I can figure out the steps.

[Thalia]

Oops. I forgot to type base 3 after the answer. 12111 (base 3) . Now that I think about it, there wouldn't be a need for 3-0. I don't know if this will mean anything to you but think about this. In base 10, we have 10 digits (0-9). After 9, we go to 10. In base 3, we have 3 digits (0-2). After 2, we don't go to 3, we go to 10 because two is the highest digit in base 3. Here is what I did.

Edited February 17, 2011 by Thalia

[Guest]

Oops. I forgot to type base 3 after the answer. 12111 (base 3) . Now that I think about it, there wouldn't be a need for 3-0. I don't know if this will mean anything to you but think about this. In base 10, we have 10 digits (0-9). After 9, we go to 10. In base 3, we have 3 digits (0-2). After 2, we don't go to 3, we go to 10 because two is the highest digit in base 3. Here is what I did.

the answer is right but i think there should not be a 3 there.. in base 3, the number 3 does not exist as 3 but 10.. here are the numbers: 0, 1, 2, 10, 11, 12, 20, 21, 22, 100, 101, etc...

just like in binary (base 2), there are only 1's and 0's with no 2's..

[Thalia]

the answer is right but i think there should not be a 3 there.. in base 3, the number 3 does not exist as 3 but 10.. here are the numbers: 0, 1, 2, 10, 11, 12, 20, 21, 22, 100, 101, etc...

just like in binary (base 2), there are only 1's and 0's with no 2's..

It is technically a 10 but it helps to think of it as a 3 since we are so used to base 10. As long as 3 doesn't somehow come up in your answer anyway.