Ch 1. Key Terms

Array: A collection of elements of the same data type stored in a list and accessed by index.

ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange): A character encoding standard that assigns a 7-bit integer value to alphanumeric characters and symbols.

Binary Arithmetic: Arithmetic operations such as addition and subtraction are performed using binary digits and base-2 rules.

Binary Number System: A base-2 number system that uses only the digits 0 and 1. Binary is the fundamental number system used by computers.

Bit: A binary digit that can have a value of either 0 or 1. A bit is the smallest unit of data in computing.

Boolean: A data type with only two possible values: true or false. Booleans are used for logic operations, decision-making, and control flow in programs.

Character: A single symbol such as a letter, digit, or punctuation mark. Characters are stored as numeric codes using standards such as ASCII or Unicode.

Exponent: The component of a floating-point number that scales the value, determining its magnitude.

Floating-Point Number: An approximate representation of real numbers that includes a fractional part and is stored using a fixed number of bits. Commonly implemented using the IEEE 754 standard with sign bit, exponent, and mantissa.

Hexadecimal Arithmetic: Arithmetic operations performed using base-16 values, often by converting to binary or decimal during computation.

Hexadecimal Number System: A base-16 number system that uses the digits 0 to 9 and the letters A to F. Each hexadecimal digit represents four binary bits.

Integer: A number with no fractional or decimal part, used in computing for counting, indexing, and representing discrete values. Integers are stored in binary and are commonly used in loops, counters, and array indexing.

Irrational Number: A number that cannot be written in the form [latex]\frac{p}{q}[/latex], such as [latex]\pi[/latex] or [latex]\sqrt{3}[/latex]. These numbers cannot be represented precisely in computing systems.

Mantissa: The component of a floating-point number that stores the significant digits of the value.

Rational Number: A number that can be written in the form [latex]\frac{p}{q}[/latex], where [latex]p[/latex] and [latex]q[/latex] are integers. Rational numbers include whole numbers and decimal values that terminate or repeat.

Real Number: A number belonging to the set [latex]\mathbb{R}[/latex], which includes all rational and irrational numbers. Real numbers are stored approximately in computing using floating-point representation.

Sign Bit: The part of a floating-point number that indicates whether the value is positive or negative.

String: A sequence of characters stored and processed as a unit. Strings are commonly used to represent text such as names, messages, and labels.

Tuple: An ordered collection of elements that may contain different data types, used to group related values into a single structure.

Unicode: A character encoding standard that extends ASCII to support a wide range of global characters and symbols, using up to 32 bits per character.