But one tau looks like half a pi…
mathematicians…
You don’t have to get them I guess
S is for symbol or does it look like 5? 
Where is Sho Minamimoto when you need him? But seriously, I’m out, I’m honestly not interested in digging up knowledge about circles and angles and whatever the hell else this might be about.
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One thing I noticed there are exactly 9 values if we dont count s and already known 5
00
01
02s
06
07
08/08s
10
11
14/14s
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The ordering of the numbers in the numpad has been specified, and the first number of the sequence, 5, is special in that it is not expressed with two digits. The first number of the answer is given, and it is 5, the special number. Perhaps the first number specifies the starting point and the rest are directions. As there are two digits to each subsequent number, perhaps they could be separate values for movement in x-coordinate and y-coordinate. However, one can think of any arbitrary number of ways to interpret those numbers as directions, so one should focus on the hint in the piece of paper.
Tau is apparently 2pi, the circumference of a unit circle. “something over sixteen” and the two digit numbers briefly brought hexadecimals to my mind, but I don’t see how they could be applied here. τ/16 = 2pi/16 = pi/8, which corresponds to an angle of 22.5 degrees. However, if that’s what the hint is supposed to mean, then there’s nothing explaining how those angles should be used.
I recall the syntax “x over y” being used to express combinations at least in Finnish. Perhaps the same does not apply to English, where it seems “x over y” refers to division.
There has to be a purpose to the letter s in the sequence. And by purpose, I mean it should represent something that cannot be represented with numbers alone. However, what could such a thing be? If the numbers are indeed directions, why is an s necessary to express some directions? Perhaps since dashes separate the numbers, they could represent negative numbers, since a minus sign would mesh badly with the dashes. But that doesn’t sound too likely to me. There are five “movements” before the first number with s, suggesting that it is either possible to express a wider amount of directions than 180 degrees without s, or the sides loop, both of which are cases that seem to negate the need for a negative operator. Though I wonder if 00 means staying in place. That way, there’d be only four proper movements.
Hmm, the whole direction approach should probably result in only eight possible inputs. Without counting zero, that appears to be exactly how many different numbers there are in the sequence. Though that does not take s into account. Could s perhaps refer to returning back to the starting point? Though if that was the case, I’d expect s to come before the corresponding number.
Nothing particularly useful comes to my mind right now. Maybe I’ll come back to this at a later time.
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The direction idea is a good idea, the thing with Tau is that fractions are exactly the angle in radiant. So the angle that 1/8th of a circle forms would be written as Tau/8. and if we’re supposed to follow a path, then we actually need 16 directions, as getting from 7 to 2 for example would be 1/16th, assuming that 0 would mean up.
So what we need to know is which direction 0 belongs to and what the s means. It’s not back to start, as working through the thing that system stops working once you get to the third 00.
@pictoshark so if s meaning start was actually the intended solution, you f-ed up.
It doesn’t mean that.
In radians and degrees, zero usually refers to “right”, with rotation happening in counterclockwise direction.
I thought about the numbers specifying multipliers for the 22.5 degree angles, but since there were directions that fell between the eight cardinal directions, I dropped that idea, but it could refer to directions that pass over one row of numbers, I suppose.
Hmm, s could mean repeating the movement twice. If you want to go from 1 to 9, simply specifying “southeast” is not enough, as that would bring you to 5.
…Though it appears that falls apart because 02s would mean moving northeast twice from 8. Which brings us out of bounds.
Perhaps it stands for “stay”. In which case… nope, that would require moving next from 6 to east.
Furthermore, it seems that googling doesn’t help either, as the only thing that might possibly apply to us for which s is used in math is the length of a curve.
So it seems s is some arbitrary thing we’re supposed to figure out, and depending on how arbitrary it is, I might call bullshit. Unless we’re completely off with our thoughts, although then I don’t even know.
The angle multiplication approach kinda falls apart when there’s 01-00. That’d translate to northeasteast followed by east, which goes out of bounds regardless of where you’re starting from.
Unless the angles are persistent and they’re rotations in the movement direction…?
wait what do you mean by that?
Oh, that we always add the number?
In that case s might be “subtract”
Pretty much. The problem with it being subtract is that the same effect as -x can be achieved by adding 360-x. Or, in this case since we’re perhaps dealing with 16 discrete angles, 16-x.
The problem doesn’t specify a starting direction, though, if they’re meant to be taken as rotations of the movement direction. The default would be 0 degrees, which would mean “east”, I suppose.
That variation fails as early as the third number. We’d be at seven currently going Southwest, and the one would then change our direction to Southsouthwest.
On top of that I’m fearing that the s stands for some technical term that I don’t actively know what with me being German.
Okay I’m actually genuinely motherfucking curious here.
How did you come to that conclusion? Like for angles, like… in general. I genuinely want to know?
Angles as expressed in a two dimensional plane are generally referring to the angle between a direction and the positive x-axis with the positive direction of rotation being counterclockwise, unless otherwise specified.
It is a convention, nothing more.
Aye, that. Okay. Continue then.
Well, I’ll let you (and anyone else reading) think further, I’ll go to sleep, so I won’t be here to bounce back ideas for a while.
Don’t forget that when dealing with bearings angles are measured clockwise with north being taken as the start point too.
There are multiple conventions for such things.