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
Computers are binary devices. 0 and 1 are the building blocks of storing and manipulating data.
Unfortunately, with only 2 digits to choose from, numbers get wide really fast. The number 120 in binary is 1111000, and it can get hard to read. Did I type 7 or 8 digits in that number?
Hexadecimal is an alternative number system again. In binary, when counting we need a new digit at merely two, getting “10”. In decimal, the regular human number system, the “10” number represents ten. Hexadecimal carries at sixteen (16), “hex” meaning 6, and “decimal” being 10, hence the name. For the numbers 10 through 15 we use the letters A through F to represent them, so counting goes 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F, 10. The last number on that list is sixteen.
The advantage for computers and binary work is that a single hexadecimal digit exactly corresponds to 4 binary digits. Hexadecimal digit 0 corresponds to 0000 and F corresponds to 1111 in binary. In fact a byte is always exactly 2 hexadecimal digits, and the number range from 00000000 to 11111111 is the same as the range from 00 to FF.
So, you can work with hexadecimal and make your binary data generally easier to read, a lot less wide, etc. Looking at anything digital in actual binary is kinda rare nowadays.
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