
BASICS OF COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE AND THE BINARY NUMBER SYSTEM 13
0.4.3 | The Hexadecimal Number System
Next is the hexadecimal system of numbering which has 16 symbols namely 0, 1, 2, 3, 4,
5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F. e base of the system is 16 and each symbol is called a ‘hex
digit’. Each position in the hexadecimal number system has a weight which is a power of
16. Let us fi nd the value of 240FCH. e letter ‘H’ is suffi xed to the number if it is needed
to make clear that it is a hexadecimal number. A to F have the decimal values of 10 to 15.
Power of 16: 16
4
+16
3
+16
2
+16
1
+16
0
Weight: 63536 +4096 +256 +16 +1
Number: 2 4 ...