Q: What is the purpose of signed number representations?
A: The purpose of signed number representations is to represent negative integers in binary.
Q: Why is it difficult to store the negative sign of a binary number?
A: It is difficult to store the negative sign of a binary number because there are no states left to use with which to represent the negative assignment.
Q: What would happen if the computer used 'off' for minus and 'on' for plus to represent signed numbers?
A: If the computer used 'off' for minus and 'on' for plus to represent signed numbers, the computer would have no way of knowing whether it was a digit or a sign.
Q: How did computer designers overcome the issue of storing negative binary numbers?
A: Computer designers overcame the issue of storing negative binary numbers by inventing two methods for storing them: sign-and-magnitude and 2's complement.
Q: What do sign-and-magnitude and 2's complement produce?
A: Sign-and-magnitude and 2's complement produce alternative representations for signed numbers.
Q: What is the difference between sign-and-magnitude and 2's complement?
A: The difference between sign-and-magnitude and 2's complement is that sign-and-magnitude represents the sign separately from the magnitude, while the 2's complement represents the sign implicitly by inverting and adding one to the magnitude.
Q: Why do computer designers use sign-and-magnitude and 2's complement to represent negative binary numbers?
A: Computer designers use sign-and-magnitude and 2's complement to represent negative binary numbers because they provide alternative representations that allow for the storage of negative numbers in binary.
