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elementary sounds, but pictures are employed, every one of whichrepresents a single word, so that the number of different symbols isvery large. Some examples of coding systems with the requirednumber of symbols are:– Binary code (q = 2 symbols, all electronic DP codes)– Ternary code (q = 3, not used)– Quaternary code (q = 4, e. g. the genetic code consisting of fourletters: A, C, G, T)– Quinary code (q = 5)– Octal code (q = 8 octal digits: 0, 1, 2, ..., 7)– Decimal code (q = 10 decimal digits: 0, 1, 2, ..., 9)– Hexadecimal code 10 (q = 16 HD digits: 0, 1, 2, ..., E, F)– Hebrew alphabet (q = 22 letters)– Greek alphabet (q = 24 letters)– Latin alphabet (q = 26 letters: A, B, C,..., X, Y, Z)– Braille (q = 26 letters)– International flag code (q = 26 different flags)– Russian alphabet (q = 32 Cyrillic letters)– Japanese Katakana writing (q = 50 symbols representing differentsyllables)– Chinese writing (q > 50,000 symbols)– Hieroglyphics (In the time of Ptolemy: q = 5,000 to 7,000;Middle Kingdom, 12th Dynasty: q = approx. 800)Criteria for selecting a code: Coding systems are not created arbitrarily,but they are optimised according to criteria depending ontheir use, as is shown in the following examples: Pictorial appeal (e. g. hieroglyphics and pictograms) Small number of symbols (e. g. Braille, cuneiform script, binarycode, and genetic code) Speed of writing (e. g. shorthand) Ease of writing (e. g. cuneiform) Ease of sensing (e. g. Braille)10 Hexadecimal system: This is used for representing numbers with base 16 andthe word is a hybrid derived from both Greek and Latin: Greek hexa = 6, Latin:decem = 10. Another more suitable word is sedecimal (Latin sedecim = 16), or“hexadecadic” from the Greek word for 16.59