Here r is the base, or radix, and the coefficients d i are the digits of the number. |
It was in English 25 that I first came across the line radix malorum est cupiditas. |
All that is needed to comprehend the puzzle is understanding that counting by grouping is most easily recorded in the positional notations, radix being the largest group size. |
Everything hinges on the assumption that the incremental cost of increasing the radix is the same as the incremental cost of increasing the number of digits. |
Likewise the second round of erasures eliminates all points with a 1 in the second position after the radix point. |
Selection of a radix may be implicit in the way the margin for risk and uncertainty is set. |