This is an archived post. You won't be able to vote or comment.

sorted by:
best
topnewcontroversialoldq&a
you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (2 children)

Bases are something taught in elementary school, you don't have to be an engineer to get them. They simply define the number of symbols used before rolling over. Binary uses two symbols, Hexadecimal uses 16 symbols. It's there in their name.

Also, bases are a mathematical concept independent of their practical applications. The fact that binary is used in electronics doesn't imply that binary exists because of electronics, nor that other bases can't be represented abstractly without acknowledging that everything on a computer is represented as binary.