title: Why is a SHA-1 Hash 40 characters long if it is only 160 bit?
body: <p>The title of the question says it all. I have been researching SHA-1 and most places I see it being 40 Hex Characters long which to me is 640bit. Could it not be represented just as well with only 10 hex characters 160bit = 20byte. And one hex character can represent 2 byte right? Why is it twice as long as it needs to be? What am I missing in my understanding. </p>
  
  <p>And couldn't an SHA-1 be even just 5 or less characters if using Base32 or Base36 ?</p>