Question 11
Beavers use beads to make decorations. To communicate conveniently, they describe these shapes with symbols: S represents a star, T a triangle, R a rectangle and L a line segment.
They have three rules for shortening a description:
- Consecutive identical beads can be shortened by putting their number first. For example, 4S means four consecutive star beads.
- If a group of beads repeats, write the repetition count followed by a description of the group in parentheses.
- Otherwise, simply write the letter representing the bead.
For example, the bead string below can be written as S 3(TR) 3S L. It has 9 characters, ignoring spaces.
What is the smallest number of characters needed to describe the following bead string?
They have three rules for shortening a description:
- Consecutive identical beads can be shortened by putting their number first. For example, 4S means four consecutive star beads.
- If a group of beads repeats, write the repetition count followed by a description of the group in parentheses.
- Otherwise, simply write the letter representing the bead.
For example, the bead string below can be written as S 3(TR) 3S L. It has 9 characters, ignoring spaces.
What is the smallest number of characters needed to describe the following bead string?