\subsubsection{Fractional Binary Numbers} We can represent any real number (with a finite decimal representation) as: $$ d=\sum_{i=-n}^{m}10^i\cdot d_i \qquad\qquad \underbrace{d_m d_{m-1} \cdots d_1 d_0\ .\ d_{-1} d_{-2} \cdots d_{-(n-1)} d_{-n}}_{d_i \text{ is the } i \text{-th digit of } d \text{ (neg. indices indicate decimals)}} $$ We can use the same idea for Base $2$ as well: $$ b=\sum_{i=-n}^{m} 2^i \cdot b_i \qquad\qquad b_m b_{m-1} \cdots b_1 b_0\ .\ b_{-1} b_{-2} \cdots b_{-(n-1)} b_{-n} $$ To get an intuition for this representation, looking at some examples is helpful: \begin{multicols}{2} A few observations: \begin{enumerate} \item Shifting the dot right: Division by $2$ \item Shifting the dot left: Multiply by $2$ \item Numbers of the form $0.111\ldots$ are just below $1.0$ \item Some numbers representable in finite Base $10$ are infinite in Base $2$, e.g. $\frac{1}{5} = 0.20_{10}$ \end{enumerate} \newcolumn \renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1.2} \begin{center} \begin{tabular}{lcl} \textbf{Binary} & \textbf{Fraction} & \textbf{Decimal} \\ \hline $0.0$ & $\frac{0}{2}$ & $0.0$ \\ $0.01$ & $\frac{1}{4}$ & $0.25$ \\ $0.010$ & $\frac{2}{8}$ & $0.25$ \\ $0.0011$ & $\frac{3}{16}$ & $0.1875$ \\ $0.00110$ & $\frac{6}{32}$ & $0.1875$ \\ $0.001101$ & $\frac{13}{64}$ & $0.203125$ \\ $0.0011010$ & $\frac{26}{128}$ & $0.203125$ \\ $0.00110101$ & $\frac{51}{256}$ & $0.19921875$ \\ \end{tabular} \end{center} \renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1.0} \end{multicols} A major issue with this representation is that very large (respectively very small) numbers require a large representation.\\ E.g $a_{10} = 5 \cdot 2^{100}$ has the representation $a_2 = 101\underbrace{000000000000000\ldots}_{100 \text{ Zeros}}\ $. Floating Point is designed to address this.