Question 984092: I am just beginning sixth grade math team, and I am stuck on this problem in summer homework. I'm not sure if this is even the correct section, but I think I understand that the subscript denotes place in a sequence, so this is my best guess. I can't figure out where to go from there. Most information seems to be about defining the sequence based on variables, but I have been given two suscripted numbers to subtract and can't find rules about how to do that. Here is the problem:
12321 subscript 5 - 12321 subscript 4 = ?
Answer by Alan3354(69443)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! 12321 subscript 5 - 12321 subscript 4 =
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The subscripts are probably the bases.
Convert both numbers to base 10.
12321 base 5 = 1*5^4 + 2*5^3 + 3*5^2 + 2*5^1 + 1
= 625 + 250 + 75 + 10 + 1
= 961 decimal
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12321 base 4 = 1*4^4 + 2*4^3 + 3*4^2 + 2*4^1 + 1
= 256 + 128 + 48 + 8 + 1
= 441 decimal
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961 - 441 = 520
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The commonly used bases are 10, 2 (binary) and 16 (hexadecimal)
Base 8 (octal) was common a few decades ago, but not now.
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