I was looking at a web page listing specific colors and it had a spot next to each color listing a Hexadecimal. What the hex is a Hexadecimal? I did google it but have math dyslexia (dyscalculia) so had trouble understanding. Grazie.
In: Mathematics
hexadecimal means 16 based (hex=6 and decimal=10)
we normally use a decimal system, meaning that when counting with your fingers for instance you can reach up to ten, using one set of fingers (usually…). but what do you do when you want to represent the number 31, for instance?
ofcourse you keep in mind, that you have one set of hands full already, so lets mark that down as a 1×10 fingers, after which you still have to count another two full set of hands, as well as one remaining finger. in written form it looks like this:
set of hands fingers
(x10) ( x1)
3 1
resulting in 31 in decimal counting.
Now imagine a creature that has 16 fingers per set of Hands… for them the number 18 would mean one full set of hands and 15 remaining fingers:
set of hands fingers
(x16 ) ( x1)
1 15
resulting in 115 in hexadecimal counting? no, that cant possibly be right, huh? we need a way of representing 15 as a single sign…..
Now comes the weird part: since most humans count with a base of ten, we use numbers that can depict that range perfectly: 0-9
But our 16-fingered creature would, ofcourse need numbers that can depict the numbers from 1-16, right?
to “fake” our way around that, when we write down numbers in hexadecimal form we simply take a few letters and give them the meaning of:
a=10
b=11
c=12
d=13
e=14
f=15
using this bigger range of symbols, the
31 in decimal
(3×10 + 1)
would correctly be written as
1f in hexadecimal
(1×16 + f)
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