Heximal Or, how to really read hexadecimal
Many debates have been had about the “correct” way to pronounce hexadecimal numbers. (If you ask me, you should just stick to the standard and go with the Nato spelling alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie…) But what if you don’t want to just read hexadecimal? What if you want to… count?
A great number of brave souls have tried, but more often than not, their attempts turn out utter nonsense. Christeen, dickety-one, and fimteek are just some of the horrors found in existing ideas for hexadecimal numbering. Armed with inspiration from the base-6 seximal, i set out to make a better system. Introducing: heximal.
Counting from 1–F
Counting from 00 to C is easy:
| Number | Word |
|---|---|
| 1 | one |
| 2 | two |
| 3 | three |
| 4 | four |
| 5 | five |
| 6 | six |
| 7 | seven |
| 8 | eight |
| 9 | nine |
| A (10) | ten |
| B (11) | eleven |
| C (12) | twelve |
Where we go from here is a challenge. Given that this is base sixteen, we can’t exactly say thirteen, fourteen, or fifteen; instead, we can shorten the letters of the Nato spelling alphabet: del from delta, eck or ech2 from echo, and fox from foxtrot.
| Number | Word |
|---|---|
| D (13) | del |
| E (14) | eck or ech |
| F (15) | fox |
10 to FF
10 is called hex, and as in any sensible system, right after that comes hex-one.
| Number | Word |
|---|---|
| 10 (16) | hex |
| 11 (17) | hex-one |
| 12 (18) | hex-two |
| 13 (19) | hex-three |
| Et cetera… | |
| 1F (31) | hex-fox |
Numbering continues along the same lines as decimal’s -ty, with the relevant suffix being -ex.
| Number | Word |
|---|---|
| 20 (32) | twennex |
| 21 (33) | twennex-one |
| 30 (48) | thirtex |
| 40 (64) | fourex |
| 50 (80) | fiffex |
| 60 (96) | sixex |
| 69 (105) | sixex-nine3 |
| 70 (112) | sevenex |
| 80 (128) | eightex |
| 90 (144) | ninex |
| A0 (160) | tennex |
| B0 (176) | elevex |
| C0 (192) | twelvex |
| D0 (208) | deltex |
| E0 (224) | eckex or echex |
| F0 (240) | foxex |
| FF (255) | foxex-fox |
Higher and higher
The logical term for a value of 100 is — what else? — a byte.
| Number | Word |
|---|---|
| 100 (256) | one byte |
| 3E8 (1000) | three byte eckex-eight |
| 7E7 (2023) | seven byte eckex-seven |
| 1000 (4096) | hex byte |
| 2710 (10,000) | twennex-seven byte hex |
Programming languages which particularly concern themselves with memory like to call any number below 104 a short, a term we’ll appropriate for our own evil purposes.
| Number | Word |
|---|---|
| 1,0000 (65,536) | one short |
| F,4240 (1.00×106) | fox short fourex-two byte fourex |
| 10B,000 (1.75×107) | one byte twelve short4 |
| 13C9,0000 (3.32×108) | hex-three byte twelvex-nine short5 |
| 3B9A,CA00 (1.00×109) | thirtex-eleven byte ninex-ten short… |
Building upon short in the manner of decimal’s -illion series, we can reach some truly dizzying mathematical heights…
| Number | Word | In decimal |
|---|---|---|
| 108 | one bort | 4.29×109 |
| 1.DF×108 | one bort, deltex-fox byte short6 | 8.03×109 |
| 10C | one trort | 2.80×1014 |
| 1010 | one quadrort | 1.84×1019 |
| 2.58×1010 | two quadrort, fiffex-eight byte trort7 | 4.33×1019 |
| 7.F8×1013 | seven byte fox-eight quadrort8 | 6.02×1023 |
| 1014 | one quinort | 1.21×1024 |
| 1018 | one sexort | 7.92×1028 |
| 101C | one septort | 5.19×1033 |
| 1020 | one octort | 3.40×1038 |
| 1024 | one nonort | 2.23×1043 |
| 1028 | one decort | 1.46×1048 |
| 102C | one elevort | 9.58×1052 |
| 1030 | one dozenort | 6.28×1057 |
| 1034 | one deltort | 4.11×1062 |
| 1038 | one eckort or echort | 2.70×1067 |
| 103C | one foxort | 1.77×1072 |
| 1040 | one hexort | 1.16×1077 |
| 1044 | one hexishort | 7.59×1081 |
| 1048 | one hexibort | 4.97×1086 |
| 1080 | one bihexort | 1.34×10154 |
| 10C0 | one trihexort | 1.55×10231 |
| 10100 | one quadrihexort or one hexgol | 1.80×10308 |
| 10400 | one bytort | 1.04×101233 |
| 104000 | one hexibytort | 2.00×1019,278 |
I’ve decided to end the naming scheme just short (heh) of what would otherwise be a "shortort", to save it from collapsing in on itself. This means that the largest named number is… [inhales]
| Number | Word | In decimal |
|---|---|---|
| 1040,000−1 | foxex-fox byte foxex-fox foxihexifoxibytifoxihexifoxort, foxex-fox byte foxex-fox foxikayfoxibytifoxihexeckort, […] foxex-fox byte foxex-fox | 6.74×10315,652 |
…Oh, go on then. Two more.
| Number | Word | In decimal |
|---|---|---|
| 1010100 | One hexgolplex | 102.16×10308 |
| 101010100 | One hexgolplexian | 10102.16×10308 |
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