Quater-imaginary base
The
Quater-imaginary numeral system was first proposed by
Donald Knuth in 1955, in a submission to a high-school science talent search. It is a positional system which uses the
complex number 2
i as base. By analogy with the
quaternary numeral system, it is able to represent every complex number using only the digits 0, 1, 2, and 3, without a sign. For example:
References
- D. Knuth. The Art of Computer Programming. Volume 2, 3rd Ed. Addison-Wesley. pp.205, "Positional Number Systems"