Unary generally refers to a number system where the number of digits represents the size of the number; there is usually only one digit, but that digit is usually 1 (thus an example number would be 111111 = 1*1^5 + 1*1^4 + 1*1^3 + 1*1^2 + 1*1^1 + 1*1^0 = 6). This doesn't exactly follow the pattern used by the other number systems, though. (The base really determines the base of the exponent, rather than the digits used; think about base -2, for instance, which uses 2 digits but has -2 as the base for exponents when calculating digits.) --ais523 09:20, 5 April 2008 (UTC)