Combinatorial number system 601 and 1010001011 = 651, which again shows that "C" comes before "C"<nowiki>'</nowiki>. This number is not however the one one wants to represent the "k"-combination with, since many binary numbers have a number of raised bits different from "k"; one wants to find the relative position of "C" in the ordered list of (only) "k"-combinations. The number associated in the combinatorial number system of degree "k" to a "k"-combination "C" is the number of "k"-combinations strictly less than "C" in the given ordering. This number can be computed from "C" = { "c", ..., "c", "c" } with "c"
Binary number as by Bells, by Trumpets, by Lights and Torches, by the report of Muskets, and any instruments of like nature". (See Bacon's cipher.) John Napier in 1617 described a system he called location arithmetic for doing binary calculations using a non-positional representation by letters. Thomas Harriot investigated several positional numbering systems, including binary, but did not publish his results; they were found later among his papers. Possibly the first publication of the system in Europe was by Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz, in 1700. Leibniz studied binary numbering in 1679; his work appears in his article "Explication de l'Arithmétique Binaire" (published