Cheating Skourene

[Owain]

It's a very good part of the Axunashin test - except I don't understand the answer!

[Nortaneous]

It started with | - and the Skourene added a mark to make it | =. The Axunez could add three scratches to make it Ш =, which I guess is 20 less than | =, but he could also flip the board 180 degrees and get = |, which I guess is 27 less than | =.

[Owain]

But if I'm reading it right, the Skourene starts it at 7, increases it to 8. The axunai can then add three strokes to make it 6, or turn it round to make it .......... stay the same?

[Nortaneous]

Oh yeah I guess it must be positional notation. It isn't explained on the page, though. And it only gives numbers up to 6, even though the language itself is base 10.

Assuming it's base 7, then, it starts at 62 (base 10: 44) and goes to 63 (45), and it can be changed to 43 (31) or 36 (27).

Except it works in base 10. Weird. So it's a base-10 positional system, and the numerals for 0 and 7 through 9 are just not done yet or something, I guess.

[zompist]

The system is base 10 and positional (left to right like ours).

[Owain]

Okay. It starts at 61 and is increased to 62, and the Axunai can add three strokes to make it 42, or turn it around to make 26 - which saves sixteen more, not seven. I remain somewhat confused.

[Nortaneous]

Okay. It starts at 61 and is increased to 62, and the Axunai can add three strokes to make it 42, or turn it around to make 26 - which saves sixteen more, not seven. I remain somewhat confused.

It starts at 62. 0 isn't listed and 1 is the circle thing.