Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos
quinary number system
References
Britannica AI Icon

quinary number system

mathematics
Also known as: base-5 number system, quinary scale
Written by
The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

The Information Architects maintain a master list of the topics included in the corpus of  Encyclopædia Britannica, and create and manage the relationships between them.
The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last updated

Quick Summary

The quinary number system, also known as a base-five system, is a method of expressing numbers where each number is a sum of powers of five. While the decimal system (base-10) is most common, other bases exist, such as the binary system (base-2) used in computers.1

The quinary scale, or base-five system, is ancient. In pure form, it is currently used by speakers of the Saraveca language in South America. Elsewhere, it is often combined with the decimal system or the vigesimal system (base-20). A related concept is the biquinary system, which represents decimal digits as pairs of digits in base-2 and base-5.23

Summary created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
3 Britannica Sources
  1. base
  2. biquinary
  3. numerals and numeral systems - Number bases

Ask Britannica AI about this topic

Britannica doesn't have a full article on this topic, so we've curated a list of our relevant coverage.