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Eleventy What?

Posted by Cliff on from the pronouncing-hexidecimal dept.

TheFr00n asks: "I recently managed to teach my ten year old son the hexadecimal number system, but he shot me back a question that has me stumped. How does one pronounce hex, after the first iteration? In decimal, we have nice words like 'fifty' and 'sixteen'. Is there an official way of pronouncing a hexadecimal number like CF9? 'See hundred and effty-nine'? (which is totally wrong anyway because a hundred is 64 in hexidecimal) Any thoughts?"

3 of 157 comments (clear)

  1. In all non-decimal systems.. by denubis · · Score: 4, Informative

    This is, unfortunatly, a point that has been drilled into me by my Discrete Math profs.

    All non decimal systems pronounce the digits individally.

    E.g. 10 in base 2 is not "ten" but "one zero"
    And 734 in octal is "seven, three, four. Not seven thirty four, or variations on that theme.

    Hope this helps.

  2. Re:Maybe by KDan · · Score: 2, Informative

    That's the official pronunciation for hex though.

    For anything other than decimal you're not meant to use "ten", "hundred", "twenty", etc. Eg:

    Binary: 1011 - One-Oh-One-One
    Octal: 7326 - Seven-Three-Two-Six
    Decimal: 4729 - Four thousand seven hundred and twenty nine
    Hexadecimal: 28ad - Two-Eight-A-D

    Simple, huh?

    Daniel

    --
    Carpe Diem
  3. Re:I don't know the answer, but don't use "and"! by jo_ham · · Score: 2, Informative

    In the UK adding the "and" is correct, as is pronouncing the numbers after a decimal point individually.

    159.34 is "one hundred and fifty nine point three four".

    You'll only hear Americans and children who are just learning about decimals say "point thirty four" in the UK.