86A8

86A8 is a hexadecimal number, which is a base-16 numeral system commonly used in computing and digital electronics. In hexadecimal, the digits range from 0 to 9 and the letters A to F, where A represents 10, B represents 11, and so on up to F, which represents 15. The number 86A8 can be broken down into its individual hexadecimal digits: 8, 6, A, and 8. Each digit represents a power of 16, with the rightmost digit representing 16^0, the next representing 16^1, and so on.

To convert 86A8 from hexadecimal to decimal, one would calculate the sum of each digit multiplied by its corresponding power of 16. This can be done as follows:

8 * 16^3 + 6 * 16^2 + A * 16^1 + 8 * 16^0

Where A is equivalent to 10 in decimal. Performing the calculations:

8 * 4096 + 6 * 256 + 10 * 16 + 8 * 1 = 32768 + 1536 + 160 + 8 = 34472

Therefore, the decimal equivalent of the hexadecimal number 86A8 is 34472. Hexadecimal numbers are often used in programming, computer science, and digital electronics due to their compactness and ease of conversion to binary, which is the base-2 numeral system used by computers.