Abacus

You can use this abacus to investigate how different number bases work.  Common bases in Computing and GCSE Computer Science are base 2 (binary), base 8 (octal) and base16 (hexadecimal).

Click on the beads to slide them left or right. Work in base

1
Red bead Red bead Red bead Red bead Red bead Red bead Red bead Red bead Red bead Red bead Red bead Red bead Red bead Red bead Red bead Red bead
0
2
Brown bead Brown bead Brown bead Brown bead Brown bead Brown bead Brown bead Brown bead Brown bead Brown bead Brown bead Brown bead Brown bead Brown bead Brown bead Brown bead
0
4
Green bead Green bead Green bead Green bead Green bead Green bead Green bead Green bead Green bead Green bead Green bead Green bead Green bead Green bead Green bead Green bead
0
8
Blue bead Blue bead Blue bead Blue bead Blue bead Blue bead Blue bead Blue bead Blue bead Blue bead Blue bead Blue bead Blue bead Blue bead Blue bead Blue bead
0
16
Yellow bead Yellow bead Yellow bead Yellow bead Yellow bead Yellow bead Yellow bead Yellow bead Yellow bead Yellow bead Yellow bead Yellow bead Yellow bead Yellow bead Yellow bead Yellow bead
0
32
Red bead Red bead Red bead Red bead Red bead Red bead Red bead Red bead Red bead Red bead Red bead Red bead Red bead Red bead Red bead Red bead
0
64
Brown bead Brown bead Brown bead Brown bead Brown bead Brown bead Brown bead Brown bead Brown bead Brown bead Brown bead Brown bead Brown bead Brown bead Brown bead Brown bead
0
128
Green bead Green bead Green bead Green bead Green bead Green bead Green bead Green bead Green bead Green bead Green bead Green bead Green bead Green bead Green bead Green bead
0
0


The purpose of this abacus is to introduce KS3 Computing and GCSE Computer Science students to different number bases, including binary and hexadecimal.