Wikipedia:Wikifun/Answers/Task 10

I was very strongly tempted to answer 42 right away... But let's go slow.

The correct answer is, of course,. You were writing from left to right, as shown by the frog  (cf. egyptian language), which had me stumped for a moment, for although egyptian hieroglyphs could be written in both directions, they were usually written from right to left. meta:MediaWiki_User's_Guide:_WikiHiero_Phonemes (linked from hieroglyphs) told me that V20 was 10, so  would be 60. Plus and minus signs (from ) told me that  was a -, since you had written from left to right. The external link given at Egyptian hieroglyphs taught me the signs for 100  and 1 , and thus   had to be 102, since it couldn't be a fraction, which would have looked like. What the frog  is supposed to mean, I don't know, maybe just "frog"? "102 frogs - 60 frogs = 42 frogs". Erm &mdash; what was the question, exactly? Lupo 21:07, 8 Nov 2004 (UTC)


 * BTW: sorry for using an extlink, I didn't find the hieroglyphs for 100 and 1 on Wikipedia itself. A hole that needs filling... unless they are somewhere already, of course. Lupo 21:07, 8 Nov 2004 (UTC)