I'm trying to learn how to do mental math in base-16. I understand how it works and I can do it on paper if I think for a long time, but the biggest problem I'm encountering is what words to say in my head as I read the numbers from the page.

 

I can't call 17₁₆ "seventeen" when I know it equals 23₁₀. And I have no clue what to call 1C₁₆, 200₁₆, 4000₁₆, etc. Usually I hear anything besides base-10 being spoken one digit at a time, so that 4D2F would be read "four-dee-two-eff." This feels very awkward and totally useless for mental math.

 

I was wondering if anyone here has experience with this and knows of a widely accepted and intuitive spoken system for hexadecimal numbers. Thank you all in advance!

I was wondering if anyone here has experience with this

Err, no. Can't say I have had any experience counting in base-16.

 

Maybe you could just call it "seventeen in base sixteen"?

I don't think there's going to be a very good way of reading out base-16 notation aloud, other than to read out digits individually, for the reason you state. When you start to get letters as a part of the numbers, it becomes a little hard to find a way of pronouncing them properly. Of course, one doesn't have this problem with, say, octal.

four dee two eff is perfecly acceptable, I used to code in Hex (and Octal for certain display types).

I`ve had MANY lengthy chats with work mates in the canteen and we all would state it in english, alphabet and numerical, although Writen it is customary to put a capital H after the number so 4D2FH is the propper way.

or at least it was about 20 years ago

am i right in thinking that your having trouble seperating it from base-10 by reffering to it in english? e.g., it's quite hard to avoid thinking that eleven / ten is one.one, even if you know your working in hex (and it should be one.seven (i think))?

 

in that case, it might be a good idea to learn to count in a foreighn language, to seperate the hex from the desimal. eg:

 

1 = ein (one)

2 = svei (two)

9 = noin (nine)

a = aah (a)

42 = svei und vierzig (two-and-fourty)

a0 = aahzig (a-ty)

1b = bei-tzein (b-teen)

cf = eff und tseisig (f and c-ty)

 

entshuligung zu anyone who actually speaks (and spells) german, and, obviously, choose a language that your never going to learn.

actualy with time Hex becomes like a second lang as does binary, you learn to think just as fluently in either base as you do with base 10 almost.

Octal`s a bit harder for me, but basicly down to the fact I never used it all that ften, only for 7 segment LED drivers.

 

unless it`s just Me that finds it this way? I`m lousey at maths so I took to binary like a fish to water, you never have to deal with a digit bigger than One )

four dee two eff is perfecly acceptable

I can think of only one practical instance where one would run into a problem besides preference: 2B₁₆ and the like.

In this case it would be spoken "two-bee" which in every other mathematical situation I know of means "two times the variable b".

 

1 = ein (one)

2 = svei (two)

9 = noin (nine)

a = aah (a)

42 = svei und vierzig (two-and-fourty)

a0 = aahzig (a-ty)

1b = bei-tzein (b-teen)

cf = eff und tseisig (f and c-ty)

I really like this solution. Adding the "zig" syllable after the first place in a two-digit number really helps. I might use a combination of this and French because I know how to pronounce A-F in French and they sound sufficiently different (unlike English, where A-E sound almost exactly the same).

 

It just seems like there would be an adaptable system for pronouncing different based numbers. Thanks everyone for the help.

I think you might want to add that "zig" in German is pronounced "zich" so Kyle doesn't go "zig-zag"-ing around sounding ridiculous.

And yet, it is only for convenience and no one will ever know it was adopted from German. Really any syllable will work: zich, zig, whatever.

Zig? isn`t it Sen for teens ?

-zig for twenty, forty, etc. -zehn for teens.

yeah, that`s what I thought (just spelled a little differently).

When I was younger I used to use base 12. I reasoned that it was the most useful because you can divide 12 by 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 with no remainder (whereas 10 can only be divided by 1, 2 and 5).

 

Then I always counted one, two, .... , ten, eleven, twelve, oneteen, twoteen, thirteen, ..., tenteen, eleventeen, twenty etc.