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 Martian mathematics. They found the following equation:
5x2 – 50x + 125 = 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 Earth’s number system developed, and found evidence that the Martian system had a similar history. How many fingers would you say the Martians had? (From The Bent of Tau Beta Pi, February 1956.)
We need at least 10 more requests to produce the solution.
0 / 10 have requested this problem solution
The more requests, the faster the answer.