Question 11
Beavers often use beads to make decorations. To communicate easily they use symbols to describe their shapes: S for a star, T for a triangle, R for a rectangle and L for a line segment. They use three rules to shorten a description:
- Consecutive identical beads can be shortened by putting their number in front. For example, 4S means four consecutive star beads.
- A repeating group of beads can be described by its repeat count followed by the group's description in parentheses.
- Otherwise write the letter representing the bead.
For example, the bead string below can be written S 3(TR) 3S L, which contains 9 characters excluding spaces.
What is the fewest characters needed to describe the following string?
- Consecutive identical beads can be shortened by putting their number in front. For example, 4S means four consecutive star beads.
- A repeating group of beads can be described by its repeat count followed by the group's description in parentheses.
- Otherwise write the letter representing the bead.
For example, the bead string below can be written S 3(TR) 3S L, which contains 9 characters excluding spaces.
What is the fewest characters needed to describe the following string?