The hexidecimal number system
What is hexadecimal?
Hexadecimal is a number another number system. You can probably count from zero to one hundred in the number system that we are all taught as children. That number system is called denary. Guess what, it is NOT the only number system that exists, there are loads. You are being introduced to "binary" and "hexadecimal" Which means you will be able to understand 3 number systems, denary, binary and hexadecimal.
What is hexadecimal used for?
1. Hexadecimal is a quick way of writing binary numbers and binary is the number system used by all computers
2. Hexadecimal is also used as a quick way to represent colours.
3. Hexadecimal is used to express Media Access Control (MAC) addresses. If you decide to prank call the police from a mobile phone, they will trace you instantly because your mobile phone has a unique MAC address.
4. Locations in RAM or Disk drives are expressed in Hexadecimal. (If you saved a mp3 music file to your computers hard disk, it would be a bit annoying if your computer forgot where you saved it. )
How does Hexadecimal work?
The hexadecimal number system is really easy to learn especially if:
So to count to 15 in hexadecimal it goes like this:
0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F
Hexadecimal is a number another number system. You can probably count from zero to one hundred in the number system that we are all taught as children. That number system is called denary. Guess what, it is NOT the only number system that exists, there are loads. You are being introduced to "binary" and "hexadecimal" Which means you will be able to understand 3 number systems, denary, binary and hexadecimal.
What is hexadecimal used for?
1. Hexadecimal is a quick way of writing binary numbers and binary is the number system used by all computers
2. Hexadecimal is also used as a quick way to represent colours.
3. Hexadecimal is used to express Media Access Control (MAC) addresses. If you decide to prank call the police from a mobile phone, they will trace you instantly because your mobile phone has a unique MAC address.
4. Locations in RAM or Disk drives are expressed in Hexadecimal. (If you saved a mp3 music file to your computers hard disk, it would be a bit annoying if your computer forgot where you saved it. )
How does Hexadecimal work?
The hexadecimal number system is really easy to learn especially if:
- You know how to count to 15 in "denary". (Denary is normal counting that we are taught as children, sometimes its called "decimal" or "base 10"). Here is how to count to fifteen: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. Got it?
So to count to 15 in hexadecimal it goes like this:
0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F
This table converts a denary number to the hexadecimal value
Denary/decimal/base 10 |
Hexadecimal |
zero |
zero |
1 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
4 |
4 |
5 |
5 |
6 |
6 |
7 |
7 |
8 |
8 |
9 |
9 |
10 |
A |
11 |
B |
12 |
C |
13 |
D |
14 |
E |
15 |
F |
Loading KS3 Hexadecimal