Topic 1: Number Bases – Sample Activity

A village is hit by malaria. The government decides to give each member in the household a mosquito net to avoid mosquitoes. Each package contains an equal number of nets of six.

There are 12 households in the village, whose members are; 2, 3, 4, 5, 3, 7, 9, 8, 11, 12, 8, 10.

Task: Determine the number of packages of mosquito nets the government will take to the village. Are there any remaining nets? How can the government utilise them also? You can use Microsoft Word to present your work.

Remember

• Computers and other digital devices use digits (numbers) to store and process data.

For a given base, we only use digits below that base.

• Decimal base is also known as base ten.

For any two numbers to be operated on, they should be in the same base.

To operate on numbers in different bases, first convert them to the same base.

• To easily divide numbers in other bases, first convert the divisor and the dividend to base ten, divide the results then convert the results back to the original base.