No, nothing to do with question begging, it is simple testing of the two proposed answers.
I don’t know what you are trying to do, but you are begging the question.
But, it’s simple math. No need to make it into an expression with variables.
If you are trying to back-calculate, it’s to no purpose. If you calculate it the way the 288ers do, you’ll get 288. If you calculate it the way the 2ers do, you get 2.
Proves nothing.