Numbering that last post in hexadecimal reminded me of something. I got my little sister angry at me, a few months ago, because she asked, "Why does hexadecimal use letters as well as numbers?"
And I said, "Because it's hexadecimal?"
We repeated that exact exchange twice more, before I realized she didn't realize hexadecimal means "(based on) 16", and it needs more digits because its base is a number higher than ten (I don't know what she thought it was, just some alternate numerical notation, I suppose). To me, it seemed absolutely obvious—if someone said "Why do windshield wipers wipe your windshield?", "Because they're windshield wipers" is an entirely valid response.
But most people don't break words from other languages up into their component parts like that—I do it all the time, nearly as automatically as one notices if a word is plural or past tense, and so on. It's almost like a mental disorder, although it's probably why I'm so good with languages.
I wonder if I've ever done that to anyone else, though...
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