Whole Number Definition A whole number is an integer that is 0 or greater. The first five whole numbers are 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4. They continue upwards to infinity. Whole numbers are almost identical to natural numbers except they include 0. This is important in computer science since numeric ranges often begin with zero. For example, the first record in an array is 0, rather than one. 24-bit RGB color provides a range of 0 to 255 for red, green, and blue values. These values are represented by wh...

Rational Number Definition A rational number is any number that can be expressed as a ratio of two integers (hence the name "rational"). It can be written as a fraction in which the the top number (numerator) is divided by the bottom number (denominator). All integers are rational numbers since they can be divided by 1, which produces a ratio of two integers. Many floating point numbers are also rational numbers since they can be expressed as fractions. For example, 1.5 is rational since it can...

Grayscale Definition Grayscale is a range of monochromatic shades from black to white. Therefore, a grayscale image contains only shades of gray and no color. While digital images can be saved as grayscale (or black and white) images, even color images contain grayscale information. This is because each pixel has a luminance value, regardless of its color. Luminance can also be described as brightness or intensity, which can be measured on a scale from black (zero intensity) to white (full inte...

Hexadecimal Definition Hexadecimal is a base-16 number system. It is a different method of representing numbers than the base-10 system we use in every day practice. In base-10, we count in multiples of 10 before adding another digit. For example, "8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12..." and "98 - 99 - 100 - 101 - 102..." Notice how a new digit is added when the number 10 is reached, and another digit is added to represent 100 (10x10). In base-16, or the hexadecimal number system, each digit can have sixteen v...