Number Representation

In packed BCD (Binary Coded Decimal) representation, each decimal digit is encoded using a 4-bit binary code. This means that each digit from 0 to 9 requires 4 bits to represent in packed BCD form.

Given Number

The given decimal number is 1856357. To represent this number in packed BCD form, we need to determine the number of bytes required.

Calculating the Number of Bytes

To calculate the number of bytes required, we can follow these steps:

1. Convert the decimal number to its equivalent binary representation.

- 1856357 in binary is 111000101001101001101.

2. Divide the binary representation into groups of 4 bits, starting from the rightmost digit.

- 1110 0010 1001 1010 0110 1.

3. Count the number of groups obtained. Each group represents a BCD digit.

- We have 6 groups, which means we have 6 BCD digits.

4. Calculate the number of bytes required by dividing the number of groups by 2.

- Since each byte consists of 2 BCD digits, we divide 6 by 2 to get 3.

Therefore, the number of bytes required to represent the decimal number 1856357 in packed BCD form is 3.

Verification

To verify the answer, we can convert the decimal number to packed BCD form.

1856357 in packed BCD form is:

- 0001 1000 0101 0110 0011 0101 0111.

We can see that there are 7 groups of 4 bits, which means we have 7 BCD digits. Since each byte consists of 2 BCD digits, we have a total of 3 bytes.

Therefore, the answer is correct, and 3 bytes are required to represent the decimal number 1856357 in packed BCD form.