Positional Notation

Positional notation or place-value notation is a method of representing or encoding numbers. Positional notation is distinguished from other notations (such as Roman numerals) for its use of the same symbol for the different orders of magnitude (for example, the "ones place", "tens place", "hundreds place"). This greatly simplified arithmetic and led to the quick spread of the notation across the world.

With the use of a radix point, the notation can be extended to include fractions and the numeric expansions of real numbers. The Hindu-Arabic numeral system is an example for a positional notation, based on the number 10.