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M1 - Alien Symbols Investigation Preparation - Student Guidance

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9 views

M1 - Alien Symbols Investigation Preparation - Student Guidance

Uploaded by

darderyeah
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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M1 - Alien Symbols Investigation

STUDENT GUIDANCE

An alien race is developing a way to represent quantities using symbols.

Three Symbols

First the aliens think about a system that uses the three symbols #, % and $. They decide that
# represents zero
% represents one 1 symbol à 3 combinations
$ represents two

For example, they would say that a human being has $ legs and # wings.

They realise that this system is very limited; they cannot represent quantities that are greater than
two, so they decide to combine these symbols in pairs to represent larger quantities.

There are 9 ways to combine two of these symbols, and the aliens decide on the following system
to represent the quantities from zero to eight:
## zero
#% one
#$ two
%# three
%% four 2 symbols à 9 combinations
%$ five
$# six
$% seven
$$ eight

For example, they would say that #$ + %$ = $%

1. Write out all of the ways of combining three of these symbols.

### %## $##


##% %#% $#%
##$ %#$ $#$
#%# %%# $%#
#%% %%% $%% 3 symbols à 27 combinations
#%$ %%$ $%$
#$# %$# $$#
#$% %$% $$%
#$$ %$$ $$$
2. Use your results so far to complete the following table.

Number of symbols combined (𝒏) 1 2 3

Number of quantities that can be


3 9 27
represented (𝑸)

3. Explain why the number of quantities that can be represented if four symbols are combined
is 81.

E.g. Every time you add 1 to the number of symbols, the number of quantities is multiplied
by 3

For each of the 3 symbols that you write as the first one, there are 27 different ways of
finishing it off to make a 4-symbol long quantity, and 3 × 27 = 81

4. State a rule for working out the number of quantities that can be represented from the
number of symbols combined. Try to write your rule using algebra, using the letter 𝑛 for
the number of symbols that are combined and 𝑄 for the number of quantities.

𝑄 = 3!

5. Come up with a systematic way of associating your combinations of three symbols in


question 1 with the decimal system that humans use. In other words, which set of three
symbols should be like our 0? Which should be 1? Which should be 2? Etc.

E.g.
0: ### 9: %## 18: $##
1: ##% 10: %#% 19: $#%
2: ##$ 11: %#$ 20: $#$ This is just Base 3:
3: #%# 12: %%# 21: $%# #=0
4: #%% 13: %%% 22: $%% %=1
5: #%$ 14: %%$ 23: $%$ $=2
6: #$# 15: %$# 24: $$#
7: #$% 16: %$% 25: $$%
8: #$$ 17: %$$ 26: $$$

You could say that this is like having # as the smallest, % as the next and $ as the largest,
and doing the list ‘in order’ like we do with decimals.
6. Describe a general way of adding two of these three-symbol alien numbers together, a bit
like the example given with two symbols earlier: #$ + %$ = $%

Write the numbers above one another.

Then, going from right to left in columns (if we use the association given above):

#+#=#
#+%=%
#+$=$
%+%=$
% + $ = #, carrying % to the column on the left
$ + $ = %, carrying % to the column on the left

It corresponds to what we would expect when we add the ‘human’quantities that were
associated with them.
This is just Base 3:
E.g. 9 3 1

#%$ This is just Base 3: 0 12


+ %$# 012 0+3+2 = 5
—--------------- +1 2 0
9 3 1
$#$ 202
120
—--------------- carry 1
9+6+0 = 15
carry %

9 3 1
Which is corresponds to 5 + 15 = 20 202
18+0+2 = 20

If you want, you could try it out with your own examples. Beware that if the
original quantities are too high, then the final column will carry a % to the left and make
something that the aliens cannot currently cope with!

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