Ones' complement

Article summary

The ones' complement of a binary number is the value obtained by inverting (flipping) all the bits in the number (that is, changing each 1 to a 0 and each 0 to a 1). The name "ones' complement" refers to the fact that such an inverted value, if added to the original, would always produce an "all ones" number (the term "complement" refers to such pairs of mutually additive inverse numbers, here in respect to a non-0 base number). This mathematical operation is primarily of interest in computer science, where it has varying effects depending on how a specific computer represents numbers. A ones' complement system or ones' complement arithmetic is a system in which negative numbers are represented by the inverse of the binary representations of their corresponding positive numbers. In such a system, a number is negated (converted from positive to negative or vice versa) by computing its ones' complement. An N-bit ones' complement numeral system can represent integers in the range −(2 N−1 −1) to 2 N−1 −1; in contrast, a two's complement numeral system can represent integers in the range −2 N−1 to 2 N−1 −1 (note that the range of negative integers is larger by one). It is one of three common representations for negative integers in binary computers, along with two's complement and sign-magnitude.…

Key claims

No claims recorded.

Discussion questions

1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
2. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
3. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

Bibliography

No sources recorded.