Hexidecimal

[Orin Eman]

> Is there something like hexidecimal for dummies?, or is this simple,
> a computer has 16 fingers instead of 10. Does 8 (fingers) make a hand 
> (for the computer) full, that would be the same as saying the 5 of human
> hands.  So 8 ozs of gold in hexidecimal weight the same as 5 oz of gold
> in our "normal" system.

Nope.  You seem to be scaling which isn't what you want.  0 thru 9 decimal
are the same as 0 thru 9 hexadecimal then 10 thru 15 decimal are
A thru F hexadecimal.  16 decimal is 10 hex, 17 decimal 11 hex etc..

Consider the decimal system we have.  Is there any reason for grouping
in tens (apart from having 10 fingers)?  Not really.  We have 12 in a
dozen, 16 (hmm) ounces in a pound etc..  and a lot of really strange
multiples when we look at inches, feet, yards, miles etc..
In the decimal system, we say the value of 1 in a column is 10 times
that of 1 in the column to its right.  In hexadecimal, it is 16 times
that of 1 in the column to its right.

In all actuality, the computer is counting in binary, just 0 and 1.
If we group four binary digits (bits) together, we can represent
0 thru 15, or one hexadecimal digit.  In the past, _programmers_
have used octal (units go 0 thru 7, then to 10 (8 decimal) etc.),
but the computer still works in binary.

Orin.