Today in Discrete Math I got bored. Boreder than usual. So I started using made up symbols instead of numbers to take my notes, and after a few minutes it became almost as natural as using the normal number system. Now I can basically interchange both at will, which is sort of scary.

Anyway, lets see how quickly you can decode it. It's a simple substitution problem; the rules of math and numbers are the same. That is, it reads from left to right, there are plus, minus, multiplication and division operations and there is an equals sign. There are ten basic numbers, just like the normal numbers, and they can be combined to make bigger ones: 10 is not "one zero", it's ten. Exponents and parantheses work the same as well.

Anyway, the first person to correctly simplify the following equation down to a number wins:
www.cs.rit.edu/~pfw8521/Eq.jpg

Since you couldn't possible get it without some other definitions:
www.cs.rit.edu/~pfw8521/Clues.jpg

And your starting clue:
www.cs.rit.edu/~pfw8521/plus.jpg
This symbol is a plus sign.

I'll post another clue in a day or two if you all are totally stumped. It's not that hard once you see past the first trick.

Got it! School * Hometime - boredom + devs = Vendetta

/me thinks Starfisher has totally lost it!

316

Damn, that was fast! It probably took me more time to go to the library and scan the damn things then it did for you to figure it out, nice.

/me gives a1k0n a cookie

Wait.. WHY AREN'T YOU SLAVING OVER MY FREE ENTERTAINMENT!? ;)

(yes, i was joking..)

o.O

Mommy, a1k0n is scaring me... :P

Sorry about that, heh. You did give out way too many clues, though. And while I gave the answer, I didn't give the complete solution, so I encourage others to figure it out. Knowing which sign is a '+' is more information than knowing the answer is 316.

Programers know too much math. It's scary.

The question was:

(14)^2 - (8)^3
-------------------
9-((6*2)-2)

The answer to that is wat a1k0n already said (316).

Took me about 2 A4's crammed with random-nonsens to figure it out :P

[PS] If you want I could make a font out of this :P

/me thinks a1k0n should work on Vendetta not math problems! j/k :P

/me looks at a1k0n with admiriation and want's to be like him when he grows old....:)

Should I make a bunch of similar problems?
So you can waste your time on it..heh.

Heh, I got about half of that using only the clues. There were a lot of clues.

a1k0n aint too old, lunitary. a1k0n is too cool to be that old (old people live in the past, not unlike my JROTC commander...he's still living Vietnam and Desert Storm)

Sheean: How would you make a font? I've been searching around for a program or tutorial to do just that, but haven't been able to find one that is free.

I posted this in another forum and they made some suggestions to make it harder. I've already come up with another number code and am working on some harder clues. Round 2 in progress.. BWHAHAHA!

Try this one: http://pfaedit.sourceforge.net/

I used that to make the TTF GTS font (wich I still have to update.. hmm.)

Edit: oh, I got the numbers right, no? :P