The hexidecimal number system wasn't really invented per se, it just is. It's a natural extension of the binary, 1's and 0's system. You can extend binary numbers out far enough to represent larger numbers, say to 11111111 (which equals 255 decimal, FF hex). Instead of 1s 10s 100s 1000s, etc, you have 1s, 2s, 4s, 8s, 16s, 32s, 64s 128s. Add all these numbers and they add up to 255.
Thus here's where hex numbers come into play. You have 16 different numbers you can represent in 4 bits. If you stopped at 10, you would be wasting roughly 1/3 of your number or address possibilities per nibble. So the following:
0000 - 0
0001 - 1
0010 - 2
0011 - 3
0100 - 4
0101 - 5
0110 - 6
0111 - 7
1000 - 8
1001 - 9
1010 - A / Decimal would start over here being 0001 0000 (10) wasting
1011 - B / these extra "address" locations...had to name the "extra
1100 - C / numbers" something, just went with A - F.
1101 - D
1110 - E
1111 - F
Keep in mind, numbers in a computer system represent memory or disk addresses not just data.
Did I lose a few people here....
Re. Hexclock, it is also just as arbitrary as the 24/60/60 second method. To be accurate within the period of a solar day, the clock is still dependant on the time accuracy of the increment counter. Also, a hexclock really isn't very useful in human interface applications, more so as a potential timing source for machinery or software. Still, it could get unnecessarily confusing when converting to regular time for us humans.
Nice academic project however! and nice tweek to the enviro-nazis...
