Hexadecimal Words Quiz | Word Play

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Here's an example: For those of you who aren't familiar with hexadecimal base (aka base 16) - instead of the 10 digits of the decimal base there are 16 digits: 0-9 and A-F. A hexadecimal number is prefixed by "0x". 0xA represents 10, 0xB=11, 0xC=12, 0xD=13, 0xE=14 and 0xF=15. The equivalent of the decimal "tens" number is 16, i.e. just like after the highest decimal digit, 9, comes 10, after the highest hexadecimal digit, 0xF, comes 0x10 (which in decimal is 16*1+1*0=16). In a similar manner, the "hundreds" number is 16*16=256=0x100, and so on. Question body: a verb which appears twice in Shakespeare's most famous monologue. Hint: 190 Correct answer: be Explanation: The Shakespeare quote is "to be or not to be...". 190 is the decimal value of the hexadecimal number BE (noted 0xBE). 0xBE = 0x10*0xB + 0x1*0xE = 16*11 + 14 = 190 (just like we do on the familiar decimal base, keeping in mind that 0x10=16, 0x100=16*16=256 and so on). Let's try a simple one for starts. The name of the fourth note of the Do major solfege.

Answer: fa

do-re-mi-FA-sol-la-si-do.

0xFA = 0x10*0xF + 0x1*0xA = 16*15 + 10 = 250.

2. The chemical symbol of iron.

Answer: fe

Fe is shorthand for "ferrum", the Latin word for iron.

0xFE = 16*15 + 14 = 254.

3. Which is the hexadecimal word used in an expression for a pleasant situation or a good life? Certain flowers are also involved in this expression.

Answer: bed

Bed of roses. All's well when you sleep well.

From Christopher Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd To His Love" (1593):

"And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;"

Let me demonstrate the reverse process. Given the hint 3053, how do you obtain its hexadecimal representation? If you are not in for teasing your brain, you would run a calculator which will do it for you (e.g. Microsoft built-in Windows calculator). If you want to burn a grey calorie or two, simply follow the powers of 16 (just as you follow the powers of 10 for a decimal number):

3053:256 = 11 (0xB) with remnant 237
237: 16 = 14 (0xE) with remnant 13 (0xD)

Thus 3053 = 256*11 + 16*14 + 1*13 = 0x100*0xB + 0x10*0xE + 0x1*0xD = 0xBED.

4. A busy and useful insect which belongs to the superfamily apoidea.

Answer: bee

Did you know that bees can perceive events at a granularity of 1/300 of a second? This is about 6 times faster than the human eye-brain machine.

0xBEE= 256*11 + 16*14 + 14 = 3054.

Note that 0xBEE = 0xBED + 1.

5. A charge for a given service.

Answer: fee

The word fee originates from the feudal term "fief" signifying the income which the landlord has granted his vassal for his work.
The origin of "fief" is probably from an old term for cattle.

4078 = 256*15 + 16*14 + 1*14 = 0x100*0xF + 0x10*0xE + 0x1*0xE = 0xFEE.

6. To relinquish possession, especially by treaty (a verb).

Answer: cede

I noticed that "cede" is very popular in the world of written news.

e.g.1 "In a meeting lasting less than 10 minutes, the Bedford City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to cede its share of the Bedford City/County Museum to the county."

e.g.2 "Bush to temporarily cede power to Cheney for colonoscopy"

Declaring that the decimal representation is between 43690 (0xAAAA) and 65535 (0xFFFF), is equivalent to saying that you are looking for a four-letter word.

0xCEDE = 4096*12 + 256*14 + 16*13 + 14 = 52958.

7. An action. Something that was manifested in reality.

Answer: deed

In this case the hint was a redundant way of telling you that the word "deed" is a palindrome.

What's the value of a deed anyway? it is 57069.

8. Here's a question on face value. What is the hexadecimal word whose value is supplied in the hint?

Answer: face

Face value, 0xFACE value. That one was right under your nose, wasn't it?

0xFACE = 16^3*15 + 16^2*10 + 16*12 + 14 = 64206.

9. To gradually lose the intensity of the colour, strength or sound (a verb).

Answer: fade

I was looking for an interesting info which will link the verb fade and the hexadecimal, digital world when I recalled the marvelous Joy Division song "Digital", which also demonstrates a dramatic fade out using the word "fade" itself.

Joy Division's album "Still" documents the last performance of the band before the suicide of soloist Ian Curtis (May 18th, 1980). Symbolically, its final song is "Digital". Here's the last verse:

"I'd have the world around,
To see just whatever happens,
Stood by the door alone,
And then it's fade away.
I see you fade away.
Don't ever fade away.
I need you here today.
Don't ever fade away.
Don't ever fade away.
Don't ever fade away.
Don't ever fade away.
Fade away. Fade away.
Fade away. Fade away.
Fade away. Fade away.
Fade away."

10. A strong fiber obtained from the leafstalk of a Philippine banana plant (Musa textilis aka Manila hemp).

Answer: abaca

An interesting plant. More on the abaca on http://www.wigglesworthfibres.com/products/abaca/usesofabaca.html

11. The economic acronym VAT contains a hexadecimal word. Which is this word?

Answer: added

VAT = Value Added Tax. It was invented as late as the 1950s by a French economist named Maurice Laure (thanks for nothing, chum).

The current VAT rate in Israel is 15.5%. In Panama it is 5% and in Denmark 25%.

12. Quite a few concepts stem from the plain fact that humans have ten fingers. This hexadecimal word is a temporal term related to our inherent usage of the decimal base.

Answer: decade

The English language celebrates this fact by using the same word for naming the ten basic numbers and the ten fingers - digits.

Another Joy Division related trivia, the elegy "Decades" also appears on the live album "Still" right before "Digital" mentioned earlier.

13. To eliminate or to render indistinct by wearing away a surface (a verb)

Answer: efface

0xEFFACE = 15727310.

Another option could have been "deface", but it is not in agreement with the value supplied in the hint since 0xDEFACE = 14613198.

From the Merriam-Webster dictionary:

Deface - "to mar the appearance of : injure by effacing significant details".
Efface - "to eliminate or make indistinct by or as if by wearing away a surface".

14. Literally: the front of a building. Figuratively: the mere outer appearance of things.

Answer: facade

Usually we are bothered by things which are not what they seem to be, so the figurative use has a negative context.

In Hebrew the term "two-faced" is used to refer to the same state of affairs.

15. The botanical name of a very important family of plants. The common names of this family are legumes or pulses. Among the members of the family are beans, peas, peanuts, soybeans and lentils.

Answer: fabaceae

Alfalfa is yet another member of the fabaceae family along with pod fruit trees such as the carob and the tamarind.

Alfalfa is a alphanumeric hexadecimal word - this is an extension of the pure hexadecimal word where the letters "l" or "i" represents the digit 1, "o" for 0, "z" for 2 and "s" for 5.

Hope you enjoyed playing this quiz. It might have been a little tiresome so feel free to have a cup of coffee, just make sure it's 0xDECAF :-) Cheers!

Source: Author gentlegiant17

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor crisw before going online.
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Hexadecimal Words Trivia Quiz

Let's define a "hexadecimal word" as a word consisting ONLY of the letters ABCDEF. Consequently, it is also a valid hexadecimal number. The question body is a linguistic lead to the word and the hint is a mathematical lead to its decimal value. Enjoy!

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