Industrial Maintenance Technician Practice Test 2025 – 400 Free Practice Questions to Pass the Exam

The octal number system is a base-8 numeral system, which means it uses eight different symbols to represent numbers. These symbols correspond to the digits 0 through 7. Each symbol is a unique representation of a value in the range of 0 to 7. This system is particularly useful in computing and digital electronics because it provides a more compact representation of binary numbers (which are base-2) while still maintaining some readability.

In contrast, the other numerical bases mentioned have different amounts of symbols. For instance, the decimal system (base-10) uses ten symbols (0-9), the hexadecimal system (base-16) uses sixteen (0-9 and A-F), and some simpler systems might use fewer than eight symbols, such as the binary system, which uses only two symbols (0 and 1). So, the correct choice highlights that the octal system specifically consists of eight distinct symbols.