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Overview of a Computer - Hexadecimal Numbers



·        A hexadecimal number is a string of hexadecimal digits
·        Digits A, B, C, D, E, F represent the numbers 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15
·        Hexadecimal is popular in the computer field because it can be used to concisely represent a long string of binary digits
·        Consider a 16 digit binary number:

1011000111000101

·        Break this up into groups of 4:

1011  0001  1100  0101

·        Convert each group of 4 into decimal:

11    1   12   3

·        Then convert each decimal number into hex:

B1C3

·        And you now have the number: Baker 1 Charlie 3

Able    = A = 10 = 1010
Baker   = B = 11 = 1011
Charlie = C = 12 = 1100
Dog     = D = 13 = 1101
Easy    = E = 14 = 1110
Fox     = F = 15 = 1111

·        By the same token, the HEX number 3F2C1596 represents the binary string:

0011 1111 0010 1110 0001 0101 1001 0110