256 (two hundred
ndfifty-six) is the natural number following
255 and preceding
257.
In mathematics
256 is a
composite number
A composite number is a positive integer that can be formed by multiplying two smaller positive integers. Accordingly it is a positive integer that has at least one divisor other than 1 and itself. Every positive integer is composite, prime numb ...
, with the
factorization
In mathematics, factorization (or factorisation, see American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), English spelling differences) or factoring consists of writing a number or another mathematical object as a p ...
256 = 2
8, which makes it a
power of two
A power of two is a number of the form where is an integer, that is, the result of exponentiation with number 2, two as the Base (exponentiation), base and integer as the exponent. In the fast-growing hierarchy, is exactly equal to f_1^ ...
.
* 256 is 4 raised to the 4th power, so in
tetration
In mathematics, tetration (or hyper-4) is an operation (mathematics), operation based on iterated, or repeated, exponentiation. There is no standard mathematical notation, notation for tetration, though Knuth's up arrow notation \uparrow \upa ...
notation, 256 is
24.
** 256 is the value of the expression
, where
.
* 256 is a
perfect square (16
2).
* 256 is the only 3-digit number that is
zenzizenzizenzic Zenzizenzizenzic is an obsolete form of mathematical notation representing the eighth power of a number (that is, the zenzizenzizenzic of ''x'' is ''x''8), dating from a time when powers were written out in words rather than as superscript numbers. ...
. It is 2 to the 8th power or
.
* 256 is the lowest number that is a product of eight prime factors.
* 256 is the number of parts in all compositions of 7.
In computing
One
octet (in most cases one
byte
The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable un ...
) is equal to eight
bits and has 2
8 or 256 possible values, counting from 0 to 255. The number 256 often appears in
computer
A computer is a machine that can be Computer programming, programmed to automatically Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic set ...
applications
Application may refer to:
Mathematics and computing
* Application software, computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks
** Application layer, an abstraction layer that specifies protocols and interface methods used in a ...
(especially on
8-bit
In computer architecture, 8-bit integers or other data units are those that are 8 bits wide (1 octet). Also, 8-bit central processing unit (CPU) and arithmetic logic unit (ALU) architectures are those that are based on registers or data bu ...
systems) such as:
* The typical number of different values in each
color channel of a digital color image (256 values for red, 256 values for green, and 256 values for blue used for
24-bit color
Color depth, also known as bit depth, is either the number of bits used to indicate the color of a single pixel, or the number of bits used for each color component of a single pixel. When referring to a pixel, the concept can be defined as bit ...
) (see
color space
A color space is a specific organization of colors. In combination with color profiling supported by various physical devices, it supports reproducible representations of colorwhether such representation entails an analog or a digital represe ...
or
Web colors
Web colors are colors used in Web design, displaying web pages on the World Wide Web; they can be described by way of three methods: a color may be specified as an RGB color model, RGB triplet, in hexadecimal format (a ''hex triplet'') or acc ...
).
* The
split-screen level in Pac-Man, which results from the use of a single byte to store the internal level counter.
* A 256-bit unsigned integer can represent up to 115,792,089,237,316,195,423,570,985,008,687,907,853,269,984,665,640,564,039,457,584,007,913,129,639,936 values.
* The number of bits in the
SHA-256
SHA-2 (Secure Hash Algorithm 2) is a set of cryptographic hash functions designed by the United States National Security Agency (NSA) and first published in 2001. They are built using the Merkle–Damgård construction, from a one-way compressi ...
cryptographic hash.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:256 (Number)
Integers