Definition:Hexadecimal Notation/Historical Note

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Historical Note on Hexadecimal Notation

Hexadecimal has often been suggested as a base for a new cunting system.

Augustus De Morgan, in his $1872$ work A Budget of Paradoxes, reported that John Williams Nystrom proposed in $1862$ a completely new number system where the digits from $0$ to $15$ be:

Noll, An, De, Ti, Go, Su, By, Ra, Me, Ni, Ko, Hu, Vy, La, Po, Fy

while $16$ be given the name Ton.


It was to follow that Ton-an, Ton-de, etc. were to be used for $17$, $18$, etc.

The number which in the system has the symbol:

$28(13)5(11)7(14)0(15)$

was to be pronounced:

Detam-memill-lasan-suton-hubong-ramill-posanfy.


David Wells also mentions this proposed system in his Curious and Interesting Numbers of $1986$.


The system was cumbersome, and too arbitrary to catch on, and little note was taken of hexadecimal notation until the age of computing, at which time the current more streamlined and intuitive convention was adopted.


Hexadecimal notation, like binary notation, has particular relevance in the field of computer science.

In that context, a number is usually indicated as being hexadecimal by subscripting $\mathrm H$ or $\mathrm h$ rather than $16$.

That is, $\mathrm {FFFF}_{16}$ would be rendered $\mathrm {FFFF_H}$ or $\mathrm {ffff_h}$, and so forth.


Sources

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