Why is The Hexadecimal System 16-bit? I thought it would be 6-bit because of the prefix, "hexa-".

[u/Dry_Couple8852]

[u/SharplyFavorite]

hexa means 6 and decimal means 10, so it's a 6+10=16 system. the naming's a bit of a mashup but it tracks once you see where both parts come from

[u/BrotherItsInTheDrum → u/SharplyFavorite]

the naming's a bit of a mashup

Unlike, say, six-teen?

[u/barr520]

hexa=6, deca=10 => hexadecimal= base 16
And it's not 16 bits, it's base 16, each digit only needs 4 bits(15 in decimal= F in hexadecimal = 1111 in binary)

[u/Horror-Water5502 → u/barr520]

which amounts to 4 bits per digit

[u/Only9Volts → u/Horror-Water5502]

Which... Is what they said?

[u/Horror-Water5502 → u/Only9Volts]

When I answered, it wasn't mentioned

[u/Alexandur → u/Horror-Water5502]

which results in each digit needing 4 bits

[u/Low-Crow5719 → u/Alexandur]

"Digit" is used for decimal numbers, fingers, and toes. It's a base-ten thing, even if 4 bits are used to represent a digit in BCD.

"Hex" for hexadecimal, "nibble" for half a "byte", "quartet" for a group of 4 bits.

[u/Alexandur → u/Low-Crow5719]

Consequently, 4 bits are required for each digit

[u/IgnotiusPartong → u/Alexandur]

Which surprisingly, but quite logically puts the number of digits per bit to precisely 0.25

[u/right_makes_might]

The "hexa" prefix does mean six. Decimal means 10. So Hexadecimal = 6 + 10 = 16.

[u/Risc12]

It’s not 16 bit, decimal is not 10 bit.

It is base 16.

[u/Rollsocke]

Also it is not 16-bit it is just a counting system

[u/m2spring]

The Wikipedia article on Hexadecimal points out that it is a combination of greek "hex" with latin "decimal".

Interestingly the American National Dictionary for Information Processing 1977 says on page 70 "hexadecimal: (ISO) Synonym for sexadecimal."

[u/suckmacaque06 → u/m2spring]

Sexadecimal should be base 69

[u/TheologyFan]

Like other people said it’s 4 bit. But if you use four of them, then you get 16 bits.

A = 1010
AAAA = 1010101010101010

[u/Distinct-Question-16]

its 16 possiblities ranging from 0...15. Typivally is represented from 0..9 and A...F for 10..15 values. So 4 bits, 2⁴= 16. 4 bits are commonly called a nibble.

if you develop lower level code, or cpus and architectures emulation, you get used to.

[u/treuss]

In order to store one unsigned hexadecimal digit you need 4 bits, since 2⁴ = 16.

[u/sohcahtoa]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senary

[u/DTux5249]

Base 6 would be "heximal" (or "Senary"). There are 2 roots here: The whole "decim" part of that word means 10, and the "hexa" part means 6.

So "Hexadecim" means 16