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Rama Hints
The Basics
In this game, you'll be asked to do some math in several different bases. Math in different bases works the same as the math in base 10 (decimal) that you're used to. The only difference in how many different symbols there are to represent the numbers in each system. In base 8 (octal) there are 8 different symbols, in base 10 (decimal) there are 10, and in base 16 (hex) there are 16 symbols. These are the systems you'll use most frequently in the game, although you'll also run into base 2 (binary) and base 3 (trinary) briefly.
The creatures in Rama will use strange symbols, or even colors (in the case of the octospiders) to represent their numbers, but you can write these symbols in more familiar terms. base 2: 0 1 base 3: 0 1 2 base 8: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 base 10: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 base 16: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
(In hex, people usually use the letters A-F after "9". The symbol "A" means decimal 10; "B", decimal 11; and so on.)
Of course, you can write numbers greater than 9 in decimal by using multiple digits. The digit to the right has the smallest value, and numbers to the left are progressively larger numbers. A number can be represented as follows: 2 * 10 * 10 = 200 + 8 * 10 = 80 + 9 = 9 --- 289
Numbers in other bases work the same way. The only thing to remember is that "10" is not always the number "ten" -- instead, it is the number "10" in whatever base you're using, which is the number one greater than the last single-digit number. Take the number "1FA" in hex, for example: 1 * 10 (hex) * 10 (hex) = 100 (hex) + F * 10 (hex) = F0 (hex) + A = A (hex) --- 1FA (hex)
You can convert to decimal by replacing all of the above numbers with their decimal equivalents. 10 (hex) is 16 (decimal), because the last hex digit is F (15 decimal), and A (hex) is 10 (decimal). So we have: 1 * 16 * 16 = 256 + 15 * 16 = 240 + 10 = 10 --- 506 (decimal) = 1FA (hex)
You can also make a similar conversion in octal; 10 (octal) is 8 (decimal). For example, 267 (octal) = 183 (decimal): 2 * 8 * 8 = 128 + 6 * 8 = 48 + 7 = 7 --- 183 (decimal) = 267 (octal)
