Dalrymple split a sneer between us. “It’s nothing but a mathematical problem. In the world I come from, students corresponding to your first-graders are started out on far harder equations.”

“So you can just take a pencil and figure it out, eh?”

“Certainly.”

[...]

“As every school child on my planet knows, each of these facts must be given a symbol and must become a part of our exploratory equation.”

[...]

There is no such thing as chance in a civilization or a culture which is properly based upon mathematics. In such a civilization lies and evasions are unheard of because all action and motivation past, present, or future, can be evaluated and revealed in complete exactitude.”

[...]

Dalrymple had the pencil racing over the paper, laying out a series of weird symbols the like of which I had never seen. They were neither numbers nor letters; nor the kind of geometric or algebra symbols used on earth either. Of that I was sure. The closest I can come is to compare them to Egyptian heiroglyphics and yet that’s far from the mark. But whatever they were, Dalrymple seemed to know exactly what he was doing.

[...]

“There - the exploratory equation is complete. Now we search it for flaws. [...] The flaws in this equation stand out by themselves. For instance, our zong is implicated -but must obviously be supplemented in order to balance the terz shading of the exploratory equation.”