

Ask HN: can you do hexadecimal arithmetic without a calculator? - hoodoof

If yes, what types of operations are you capable of, and for numbers of what size?<p>In your head or on paper?
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marssaxman
I would guess that I am equally capable with hexadecimal or decimal
arithmetic, in my head. That is, I can work through the four arithmetic
operations on numbers up to perhaps five or six digits. On paper, though - why
would I ever do arithmetic on paper? That's computer work.

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hoodoof
Can you give an example of a complex calculation you are capable of? How
quickly do you perform the calculation? For what reason did you learn to do
hex calculations?

~~~
marssaxman
Complex, no way! All I can do is simple arithmetic. Addition and subtraction
are straightforward, multiplication is ok, division is hard but I can do it
for small numbers. Shifting left or right is of course easy, just as
multiplication or division by powers of 10 would be with decimal numbers.

I don't remember specifically deciding to learn to do arithmetic in hex. I
started coding about 25 years ago and hex was just part of the way things
worked back in those low-level days. I suppose the arithmetic operations
developed as a consequence of learning to convert back and forth between hex
and decimal and learning to do bitwise operations.

