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Hexadecimal is base 16. Much like base 10 uses digits that represent powers of 10 and binary uses digits that represent powers of 2, hexadecimal uses digits that represent powers of 16. Here is how we would interpret \({2047}_{16}\text{:}\)

So \({2047}_{16}\) = 2 * 4096 + 0 * 256 + 4 * 16 + 7 * 1 = \({8263}_{10}\text{.}\)

Using this scheme, \({10}_{16}\) = 1 * 16 + 0 * 1 = \({16}_{10}\text{.}\) Which raises the question “How do we represent ten in hexadecimal?” A 1 in the second column indicates a 16, so we can’t use that - we have to fit all the values up to 15 in the first column. We do so by using the letters A-F to indicate 9-15:

Thus in the hexadecimal number \({\textrm{1EA}}_{16}\) the E means 14 copies of the second digit (16). The A means 10 copies of the rightmost digit (1):

So \({1\textrm{EA}}_{16}\) = 1 * 256 + 14 * 16 + 10 * 1 = \({490}_{10}\) .

Why would we want another base system? Large binary values are hard for people to read accurately and remember. Try it yourself - quickly try to decide if 0011100101110110 and 0011100101100110 are the same.

Those two binary strings look like this in hex: \({3976}_{16}\) and \({3966}_{16}\text{.}\) In that format, it is a little easier to say the values and to see where the difference is, isn’t it? Because changing switching from binary to hex is so easy, hexadecimal is used to display binary values in a more human-readable form. You will see an example of where this is used in web page design on the next page.