The first expedition to Mars found only the ruins of a civilization. From the artifacts and pictures, the explorers deduced that the creatures who produced this civilization were four-legged beings with a tentacle that branched out at the end with a number of grasping fingers. After much study, the explorers were able to translate the Martian
mathematics. They found the following equation 40x^{2} 520x + 1600 = 0
with the indicated solutions x 5 and x 8 . The value x 5 seemed legitimate enough,
but x 8 required some explanation. Then the explorers reflected on the way in which
Earths number system was developed and found evidence that the Martial system had a similar history. How many fingers would you say the Martians had ?
Now I have absolutely no idea on how to start this question, the only thing I know is that it involves binary numbers (since it is under this section).
mathematics. They found the following equation 40x^{2} 520x + 1600 = 0
with the indicated solutions x 5 and x 8 . The value x 5 seemed legitimate enough,
but x 8 required some explanation. Then the explorers reflected on the way in which
Earths number system was developed and found evidence that the Martial system had a similar history. How many fingers would you say the Martians had ?
Now I have absolutely no idea on how to start this question, the only thing I know is that it involves binary numbers (since it is under this section).
