If I were to say that:
2 + 2 = 22
2 + q = q2
q + 2 = q2
22 + q2 = q22
2q2 + q = q2q
qqq + 22 = qq22
2 x 2 = 22
2 x q = 2q
q x 2 = 2q
2q x q = 2q22
q2q x q2 = q22222
qq x qq = q222q
could you then tell me what 2qq2 x qq2
is?
Some notes:
- the '
x
' in the above is ordinary mathematical multiplication, the '+
' is addition, and the '=
' is equality. - each string of
2
's andq
's is a natural number. Every string is a number, and every number except 0 is a string (including the empty string). - you do not need every piece of information in the box to determine an answer, though the answer will be consistent with every piece of information in the box.
Since someone got a correct answer, using different reasoning than I did, I'll add my own reasoning below for those who are interested:
First off, the empty string is 1. If some string
x
corresponds to some integer $n$, then2x
corresponds to $2n$ andqx
corresponds to $2n + 1$. So2
= $2 \times 1$ = $2$,q
= $2 \times 1 + 1$ = $3$ and so on.qq2
= $2 \times (2 \times 2 + 1) + 1$ = 11, and2qq2
thus = $2 \times 11$ = $22$, the product of which is $242$ = $2 \times (2 \times (2 \times (2 \times (2 \times (2 \times (2 + 1) + 1) + 1))) + 1)$ =2q22qqq
.
2
s andq
s? (Feel free not to.) $\endgroup$+
' and 'x
' are ordinary addition and multiplication, then $a+b=b+a$ and $a\times b=b\times a$ for all $a$ and $b$, so you didn't really need to tell us that $2+q=q+2$ and $2\times q=q\times 2$ — or am I misunderstanding something? $\endgroup$