Page "Numeral system" Paragraph 13

More elegant is a positional system, also known as place-value notation.

Again working in base 10, ten different digits 0, ..., 9 are used and the position of a digit is used to signify the power of ten that the digit is to be multiplied with, as in 304 = 3 × 100 + 0 × 10 + 4 × 1 or more precisely 3 × 10 < sup > 2 </ sup > + 0 × 10 < sup > 1 </ sup > + 4 × 10 < sup > 0 </ sup >.

Note that zero, which is not needed in the other systems, is of crucial importance here, in order to be able to " skip " a power.

The Hindu-Arabic numeral system, which originated in India and is now used throughout the world, is a positional base 10 system.