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Date:      Sat, 27 Jan 2001 13:20:01 -0600 (CST)
From:      Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org>
To:        "Mark B. Withers" <mwithers@one.net>
Cc:        questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: hexidecimal literacy
Message-ID:  <14963.8033.752142.149320@guru.mired.org>
In-Reply-To: <19700761@toto.iv>

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Mark B. Withers <mwithers@one.net> types:
> Oh gosh!
> 
> I thought I understood it before, but looking at it like this
> simplifies it dramaticly!!

Just remember that this applies to interesting bases like 0, 1, Pi and
negative numbers :-).

	<mike

> On Sat, Jan 27, 2001 at 03:31:17AM -0500, Donald J . Maddox wrote:
> > Here's how it really works:
> > 
> > Normally, we use base 10 numbers.  What this means is that a number
> > like "19,784" is interpreted as:
> > 
> > 1 9 7 8 4
> > ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
> > | | | | |__ 4 x 10 ^ 0 +
> > | | | |____ 8 x 10 ^ 1 +
> > | | |______ 7 x 10 ^ 2 +
> > | |________ 9 x 10 ^ 3 +
> > |__________ 1 x 10 ^ 4
> > 
> > Hexadecimal numbers are exactly the same except that they use powers
> > of 16 instead of 10.  So, 0x19784 is interpreted as:
> > 
> > 1 9 7 8 4
> > ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
> > | | | | |__ 4 x 16 ^ 0 +
> > | | | |____ 8 x 16 ^ 1 +
> > | | |______ 7 x 16 ^ 2 +
> > | |________ 9 x 16 ^ 3 +
> > |__________ 1 x 16 ^ 4
> > 
> > When using base 10 numbers, there are 10 symbols required, 0-9.  When
> > using hexadecimal numbers, there are 16 symbols required, 0-9 and a-f,
> > where a-f would be 10,11,12,13,14,15 in decimals, so counting in hex
> > goes like this:
> > 
> > 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, a, b, c, d, e, f, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15,
> > 16, 17, 18, 19, 1a, 1b ...
> > 
> > Note that 0x16 = 1 x 16 ^ 1 + 6 x 16 ^ 0, which would be 22 in decimal.
> > 
> > Is any of this making sense? :)
> > 
> > On Sat, Jan 27, 2001 at 02:47:23AM -0500, Mark B. Withers wrote:
> > > Kewl!
> > > 
> > > Thanks everyone for the help! I've studied it before but am quite
> > > rusty.
> > > 
> > > Mark
> > > 
> > > On Sat, Jan 27, 2001 at 02:30:15AM -0500, Christopher Farley wrote:
> > > > Mark B. Withers (mwithers@one.net) wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > > I was wondering if someone could help me with understanding
> > > > > hexidecimal numbers used in FreeBSD?
> > > > 
> > > > This reminds me of the Onion story "Microsoft Patents 1s, 0s"...
> > > > 
> > > > > I can relate mentally to the concept that the numeral system is based
> > > > > on 16 instead of 10 like decimal numbers are.
> > > > > 
> > > > > Is the prefix 0x always used? What does the 0x mean?
> > > > 
> > > > The prefix 0x is always used to denote a hexidecimal number. The prefix
> > > > 0 is used to denote an octal (base-8) number. 
> > > > 
> > > > Why ask why?
> > > > 
> > > > > Would the hexidecimal number 0xf mean 16?
> > > > 
> > > > Actually, it's 15. 0x10 would be 16.
> > > > 
> > > > -- 
> > > > Christopher Farley
> > > > www.northernbrewer.com
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
> > > > with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
> > > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
> > > with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
> > 
> 
> 
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--
Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org>			http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/
Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information.


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